Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reshuffling ministerial roles ahead of election

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shaken up several political portfolios, including immigration and housing, ahead of the coming election.

Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles have been axed from the home affairs ministry and replaced with Tony Burke - who also took over immigration and multicultural affairs.

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says this refresh follows a disappointing week in the polls for Albanese.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oliver Piece and six PR Perth. Hello. Oh do I
have to push the button to get him on?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Sorry, OLLI, Hey Ailey, Hello Andrew. We'll get onto the
source soon. I know it's a burning question, but first,
apparently your Prime minister reshuffled his cabinet. And why that's
more important than source, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, it's important at the moment because you know those
big changes. Is the world wise indicated Andrew Giles and
Clara O'Neil out of Home Affairs and immigration and that
was two people's jobs. Now it's one person's job. Tony Burke,
who is a senior minister in the Albanezi government, very
experienced and probably one of the best performers on his

(00:38):
feet in the Parliament, he gets Home Affairs, he gets Immigration.
He also gets Multicultural Affairs, which is important because he's
a Western Sydney MP. But really, in the end, this
is a pretty weak reallocation of portfolios because the Prime
Minister can't choose his own cabinet. The union's telling who
he could have and they all decide on the names
and are put forward. So Giles, who's been a hopeless minister,

(01:01):
just gets reallocated a lesser portfolio in skills and Clara O'Neil,
who's done a terrible job in her portfolio of being
home the Fairs min It's just she's now the Housing
Minister and we've got a housing crisis, so she goes
from one housing from one crisis to another. Murray what
who's stuffed up the agriculture portfolio and decided to end
the live export trade. He also got a promotion, So

(01:21):
in the end, Andrew, nobody's really been promoted from the
back bench. They're the same people who have just recycled
with new portfolios.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
New coat of paint of course, sorry, a new code
of paint. What was your metaphor going to be a
new code of paint on a peg?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
What? Yeah, something like that. As the Titanic starts to seek.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
So and this all well, the polls continue to go
in the wrong direction for Albernazy, so he needed a refresh,
not a resort.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
And the timing of this is interesting. It's obviously the
energyly middle of the winter recess, and it still leads
open then the possibility that he actually goes to an
election before Christmas. There's a fewer lections scheduled in Australia
over the next six months. You've got a Queensland election,
You've got an early election in Western Australia where I
am next year, he'll win or the Labor Party will

(02:09):
win the WA election. They're going to get booted from
office in Queensland. So timing is obviously everything in politics,
and I wouldn't be surprised if alban Easy decides to
jump before those two state elections.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
All right. Horrific story. A young Saudi woman reportedly kidnapped
from Melbourne and then taken back to Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
This is really concerning. Her name is Lalita and she
was escaped Saudi Arabia to live here in Australia because
she was forced to marry at the age of eleven.
She had her first child at around thirteen. Would you
believe it? Andrew? Now her cousin has broken the news
in Australia. This happened about a year ago and speaking

(02:49):
through their lawyers, have indicated that she made a call
to her cousin, who lives here in Australia, late one
night back in May of twenty twenty three to say
they're coming to get me. They're on their way ledge
that four men turned up to her house. They took
her to Melbourne Airport, she boorded a plane to Kuala Lumpa.
She was then on her way to Saudi Arabia and
she's never been heard of again. They believe she may

(03:11):
be in a Saudi Arabian jail, but we don't know.
We can't confirm any of this information. And the question
being asked is how can this go on in Australia
that four men can turn up to her house, bully
her obviously to get onto an aeroplane to leave Australia.
When they go looking for their CCTV footage at the airport,
it's gone, it's disappeared, it's not even there. So there's
a lot to this story. There's a lot of concern

(03:32):
around how this can obviously happen under the nose of
Australian Federal Police and the Border Force at the airport.
But what a horrific story. And we're only obviously scratching
the surface on this one, Andrew, but it is rather
out concerning.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Finally, where do you keep the tomato sauce and the
fridge of the pantry. Apparently there's a generational divides Master
for Master Foods, who makes your sauce has come out
with the definitive answer they.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Have And I will not keep anybody guessing and waiting
anymore because this person Mail, and what a great surname is,
You're going to be delivering the news. Ross Mail, the
head of research and development for Master Foods, who's been
there for fifteen years. Andrew says, there's only one place
in our homes of the iconic red bottles of sauce belong,
and that is, of course, in the fridge.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Hold on when you buy them in the supermarket, though
they're not on the fridge, they're on the shelf.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
That's right. But when you open it, it helps keep the
quality so it tastes and looks fresher for longer. The
colder temperature helps slow down the aging process, which keeps
its brighter and red color, and it has a stronger
tomato flavor. So if you want more out of your sauce,
you got more sauce out of your sauce, put it
in the fridge.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
But hold on, it says that on the bottle. So
why are we even having this debate?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Because like New Zealanders, Australians are divided on the old
tomato sauce question, and you'll never shift it from fifty
to fifty being fridge.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Or covered good Man, Elean Peterson, I thank you so
much from six PR.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
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