Australia set to swear in its first cabinet without any Jew since 2010

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosts a public Labor Party meeting in Parliament House for the first time since his government won an emphatic election victory on May 3.

The government has been criticized for dropping Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, the government’s most senior Jew, and Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic, the government’s most prominent Muslim, from the new cabinet that will be sworn in on Tuesday.

The government would be the first in Australia without a Jewish minister since 2010, Dreyfus staffer Stephen Spencer says. Dreyfus is one of three Jewish lawmakers in the government.

Cabinet ministers are decided by party factions that are entitled to a proportion of ministerial seats that reflects their share of government lawmakers.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Defense Minister Richard Marles, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have been assured they will hold their portfolios. But Albanese has yet to announce the remainder of his ministers.

The meeting of Labor lawmakers endorses the 30 appointments to the cabinet and junior ministries.

Health Minister Mark Bulter says Anne Aly, a junior minister, is expected to be promoted to cabinet next week, which would mean a Muslim woman replacing Husic.

“It’s a tough day for Ed and for Mark,” Bulter tells Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Meanwhile, Sydney Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi calls on Albanese to intervene to keep Husic, a Sydney lawmaker, in cabinet.

“The prime minister needs to reflect on what sort of message he sends to all these people who worked hard in southwestern Sydney” for the government’s reelection, Rifi said. Southwest Sydney has a large Muslim population.

Husic is one of the government’s most vocal critics of how Israel has waged war on Hamas in Gaza.

Two weeks after the Hamas onslaught in Israel on October 7, 2023, Husic said: “I feel very strongly that Palestinians are being collectively punished… for Hamas’s barbarism.”