Even within a landslide victory of the scale achieved in the reelection of the Albanese government, Ed Husic’s performance in his western Sydney electorate of Chifley was a standout.
Across all candidates in the 150 electorates that make up Australia’s lower house of Parliament, the Industry and Science minister recorded the fifth-highest proportion of two-candidate preferred votes at 70.45 per cent.
Mr Husic’s seat was already safe as houses. At the 2022 election he won 63.65 per cent of two-candidate preferred votes, and yet increased the margin by nearly seven points on Saturday.
This is a very, very successful local member. He is clearly doing something right.
Which makes it all the more perplexing that Mr Husic gets such mixed reviews among his other constituents – the leaders from across the tech industry, and the other stakeholders touched on by his portfolio, like researchers, entrepreneurs and academics.
Mr Husic’s office is notoriously difficult to deal with. That is just a simple reality that has been widely experienced and shared across industry. There are many war stories.
It is remarkable that someone who was so popular among stakeholders while advocating as a shadow minister could burn through so much goodwill during three years of government, even while he was setting up giant industry support programs.
Which of course brings us to the prospect of a Cabinet reshuffle. Whether or not Ed Husic retains ministerial responsibility for the Industry and Science portfolios is unknowable until the Prime Minister makes that decision in the coming days.
But there is plenty of chatter across the industry, with many of these stakeholders expecting a change of minister in the Industry portfolio.
So let’s step through a thought experiment.
The composition of the Cabinet is a factional responsibility, while the PM hands out the assignments. It is a multi-layered numbers game.
The factional composition of the Labor caucus and which states the elected members come from is of fundamental importance. The strengthened numbers in the caucus, coupled with the renewed electoral fortunes in Queensland and Victoria changes the Albo-algorithm.
There are already suggestions that the NSW Right may struggle to hold on to its current number of its members in Cabinet.
There are many talented and ambitious members in the outer ministry, and still more on the backbench pushing to get a foot on the first rung. A larger caucus full of talent is a nice problem for the Prime Minister to preside over, but it’s thorny nonetheless.
There is a largely consensus view among stakeholders contacted by InnovationAus.com that Mr Husic will be moved (and there are a variety of suggestions about where he would be moved).
But to be clear, the reality is that none of these people actually know – regardless of how senior, connected and knowledgeable they might be.
The speculation of this column is for illustrative purposes only, to colour in some blank spaces while we can. For fun.
But were Ed Husic to be shuffled within Cabinet, one possible replacement would be Senator Tim Ayres, who was most recently the Assistant Minister for a Future Made in Australia within the Prime Minister’s portfolio.
Senator Ayres was appointed as Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing after the 2022 election, a junior within the Industry portfolio.
He was then lifted out of Industry in mid-2024 and moved to the Prime Minister’s portfolio as Assistant Minister for a Future Made in Australia program – suggesting both the priority of the FMiA work, and the trust of the Prime Minister.
At the time, the significance was not lost on anyone that oversight of one Mr Albanese’s signature industrial policies had been taken out of the Industry portfolio.
So Senator Ayres has served a full term as an assistant minister, is well regarded and ready to move up. It is true that his focus has been at the big iron, oily rag end of industry – trains, wind towers, solar manufacturing etc – and has shown less interest in digital economy issues.
But there are others. Claire O’Neil is already in Cabinet as the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness. She has a demonstrated interest in the industry, and a special focus on digital economy and climate response.
In the outer ministry, Senator Jenny McAllister the current Minister for Cities and Minister for Emergency Management needs a bigger job.
And what of Tim Watts, the current Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, or Andrew Charlton, the Special Envoy for Cybersecurity and Economic Resilience? Anything that points toward digital economy policy – perhaps from Treasury – would be welcomed by the tech sector.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.