Federal cabinet ministers are set to meet in central Queensland, as Anthony Albanese seeks to deliver on a promise to “govern for the whole of Australia”.
The cabinet meeting in the industrial city of Gladstone on Wednesday will be the prime minister’s first visit to Queensland since his May 21 election victory.
Gladstone is in the seat of Flynn, which was retained by the coalition at the election.
Regional cabinet meetings were previously used by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd and Queensland premier Peter Beattie to take ministers out of their city comfort zones and to engage directly with voters.
The meeting, in a seat with a large energy industry presence, comes as the government seeks solutions for rising power prices, considers short-term controls on the gas market and rolls out a more ambitious carbon emissions target than the coalition.
Queensland-based Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the cabinet would be able to hear directly from regional people.
“Energy issues, manufacturing issues, workforce shortages, all those sorts of things, that the country as a whole is facing, Gladstone and central Queensland is a real microcosm,” he told Sky News on Tuesday.
“It’ll be a really great experience for everyone who participates.”
Senator Watt said Mr Albanese wanted to govern for the nation, and not just those who voted for Labor.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will take his shadow cabinet to Western Australia, where the coalition faced a massive voter backlash at the election.
Mr Dutton is expected to convene his first shadow cabinet meeting in Perth on Wednesday.
Labor picked up four extra seats in WA, where the Liberals already have a minuscule presence in the state parliament after the party’s trouncing by Labor Premier Mark McGowan.
© AAP 2022
