New Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Monday the members of his cabinet. What is very noticeable, which Mr Abbott acknowledged, is that there is only one female minister.

She is Julie Bishop, the deputy Liberal Party leader, who was named as minister of foreign. Mr Abbott insisted he is disappointed that he could only appoint one so far, but promised to appoint more women in the cabinet and ministry in the future.

"Nevertheless there are some very good and talented women knocking on the door of the cabinet and there are lots of good and talented women knocking on the door of the ministry," Mr Abbott said.

Without his assurance, Mr Abbott would have again been accused of misogyny which his former nemesis, PM Julia Gillard, charged him. Although it is also noticeable that Mr Abbott did not officially designate Ms Bishop as deputy prime minister, but he has not named any yet.

Should he pick a male deputy PM, it may lead to speculations that he could be afraid Ms Bishop would do a Julia Gillard and lead a coup against the PM, which Ms Gillard did in 2010.

Acting Labor leader Chris Bowen lamented the reduction of female cabinet members from six in the Gillard and Rudd cabinets to just one. He pointed out that there are more female cabinet members in Afghanistan than Australia.

Mr Abbott named his cabinet ahead of his swearing in on Wednesday. The new ministers include:

  • Mathias Cormann - Finance
  • Andrew Robb - Trade and Investment
  • Barnaby Joyce - Agriculture
  • Ian Macfarlane - Industry
  • Peter Dutton - Sport and Health
  • Michael Richardson - State
  • Eric Abetz - Employment and Public Service
  • Marise Payne - Human Services

Mr Abbott described his team as one that would provide a strong and stable government which was built on a strong and effective, united and cohesive opposition.

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