Clare O’Neil shuffled away from cyber security portfolio

Minister Clare O’Neil has been removed from the Home Affairs and Cyber Security portfolios to head up housing in a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

O’Neil will be replaced by Tony Burke, former Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations of Australia. Burke will also hold the ministerial portfolio of immigration and multicultural affairs.

In the reshuffle, Labor MP Andrew Charlton was appointed as a special envoy for cyber security and digital resilience.

The cabinet reshuffle was triggered by the announcement that two ministers, Brendan O’Connor and Linda Burney, would retire at the next election.

In a LinkedIn post, O’Neil wrote that she was ‘enormously proud’ of what she has achieved in the past two years in Home Affairs.

“We’ve undertaken massive reform in vital areas. A world leading approach to cyber security, a clear strategy for migration for the first time in Australian history and critical work on foreign interference, to name a few,” she said.

The Albanese government created the role of Minister of Cyber Security two years ago, with O’Neil being appointed as its first minister.