Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has appointed the new front bench he'll use to reset Labor's policy agenda ahead of the federal election.
And, as Amanda Cavill reports, Mr Rudd has had to replace one third of the cabinet after the resignation of six senior ministers following the leadership spill which removed Julia Gillard.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has had to replace Trade Minister Craig Emerson, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, Schools Minister Peter Garrett and Treasurer Wayne Swan, who all resigned after the leadership change.
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Mark Butler becomes Climate Change Minister and Tony Burke takes on Immigration, making them the men expected to shift the debate around climate change and asylum seekers.
Brendan O'Connor, one of Julia Gillard's strong supporters, takes on the Employment portfolio.
Key Rudd supporters Joel Fitzgibbon and Kim Carr have returned to the front bench and, in a major promotion, Richard Marles will enter Cabinet as Trade Minister.
Mr Fitzgibbon is the Agriculture Minister, while Senator Carr returns to the Industry and Innovation portfolio.
Treasurer Chris Bowen's responsibilities will now include Financial Services and Superannuation.
Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese adds the Communications portfolio to his Transport and Infrastructure portfolios.
Bill Shorten keeps Workplace Relations and adds Education to his responsibilities.
Mr Rudd says he's proud of the team.
"This is a strong team. I am proud to lead this team. This team has been selected on the basis of merit. I am delighted that in this Cabinet of ours we'll have the largest number of women of any Cabinet of Australia's history. This is a very strong team."
Victorian senator Jacinta Collins enters Cabinet as the Minister for Mental Health; Catherine King becomes Minister for Regional Australia; and Julie Collins will take the portfolio for Housing, Homelessness and the Status of Women.
Tanya Plibersek remains Health Minister, Jenny Macklin stays as Minister for Disability, Family and Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs, and Kate Lundy Multicultural Affairs Minister, although she loses the Sport portfolio.
West Australian MP Melissa Parke moves to the outer-ministry portfolio of International Development.
Tony Abbott says the line-up is disappointing and the Labor party will soon realise its mistake.
"The new ministry isn't even the B team, it's the C team. The change that took place late last week wasn't motivated by any sense that Kevin Rudd was a stronger character or a better and more effective leader; it was simply about the polls. Now that's not much of a basis for change, but nevertheless that's the basis on which the government has changed. I think before too long a lot of people in the Caucus will conclude they have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire."
Mr Rudd has yet to announce any policy changes, but Foreign Minister Bob Carr has already said Labor needs to take what he calls a more hard-edged approach to people-smuggling.
Also expected to be on the change agenda are key elements of Ms Gillard's carbon pricing mechanism, including whether to fast-track the move from a fixed price to a floating price.
And it's believed Mr Rudd will reverse some of the cuts to the welfare payments of single parents, and commit in-principle to increase Newstart in a radical departure from the Gillard government's welfare agenda.
Mr Rudd says he'll be talking to his new Cabinet colleagues about the new government's policy agenda.
"We will go through the government's current policies and work out where any challenges exist. I have some fresh policy ideas of my own but I don't intend to canvas those here before taking it through the proper deliberations of the Australian Cabinet. So we'll wait and see how Cabinet resolves itself on these questions."
Mr Rudd's front bench announcement comes as another former Labor minister, Simon Crean, announced he is quitting politics and will not contest the next election.
He becomes the latest Gillard government supporter to announce they will quit politics - among them Julia Gillard, Greg Combet, Peter Garrett, and Craig Emerson.
