Shadow Cabinet of Tony Abbott

The Shadow Cabinet of Australia is a group of senior Opposition spokespeople who form an alternative Cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual Minister or portfolio of the Government. The Shadow Cabinet was led by Tony Abbott from December 2009 to September 2013.

Since the 2007 federal election, the Liberal–National Coalition had been the Official Opposition, initially led by Brendan Nelson and later Malcolm Turnbull. In 2009, Tony Abbott defeated Turnbull in a leadership spill 42 votes to 41 in the second round and took on the role of Opposition Leader.

Structure

The "opposition front bench" comprises the full shadow ministry including the shadow cabinet, other shadow ministers and shadow parliamentary secretaries. As an institution, the shadow cabinet is much less defined—or studied—than the Cabinet with its well established formal procedures. Shadow Cabinet operates more as a committee of an opposition political party than an institution of Government or Parliament. The Cabinet Handbook was first published in 1926 and the updated version is available on-line^[1] but no such equivalent exists for Shadow Cabinet.^[2]

Members of the Shadow Cabinet

The following are the current members of the Shadow Cabinet:^[3]

Other Shadow Ministers

Shadow Parliamentary Secretaries

Other positions

Previous Shadow Cabinets

• September 2008 to November 2009
• December 2007 to September 2008
• December 2006 to November 2007
• March 2005 to December 2006
• October 2004 to March 2005
• July 2004 to October 2004

See also

• Cabinet of Australia
• First Rudd Ministry
• Current Australian Commonwealth ministry
• New South Wales Shadow Cabinet

References

External links

• Parliament of Australia, Official current Shadow Ministry list
• Shadow Ministry,