Conroy misses out on Shadow Comms Ministry

Labor MP Jason Clare has been appointed Shadow Minister for Communications, with Labor’s recent communications ministers Stephen Conroy and Anthony Albanese being passed over for the role.

The 41-year-old Clare has little apparent history with the communications industry - he completed degrees in Arts and in Law at university and has spent the majority of his working life as a politician in the Labor party.

He has held the NSW seat of Blaxland since 2007 and in that time held several ministries including Defence Materiel, Home Affairs and Justice.

Michelle Rowland, a Labor MP since 2010, has been appointed as Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications. This is in addition to her role as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

Rowland has not held a ministry while in government but has spent time as a member of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network.

In the new shadow cabinet, Conroy has been appointed as Shadow Minister for Defence and also deputy leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

“The defence of Australia is a very important matter, therefore it is appropriate that one of the most senior portfolios goes to one of our members of our leadership team,” opposition leader Bill Shorten said of Conroy’s Defence appointment.

Although he lost the Communications portfolio in the new line-up, Anthony Albanese will serve as Shadow Minister for two of the portfolios he held while in government - Infrastructure and Transport - and also picked up the Tourism portfolio.

Conroy was Labor’s Shadow Minister for Communications and Information Technology from October 2004 to December 2007, when he was appointed Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy after Labor won power in the 2007 federal election.

Conroy announced his resignation from the position in June this year, after the Labor Caucus voted to replace Julia Gillard as prime minister with Kevin Rudd. Conroy was replaced by then Deputy PM Anthony Albanese, who held the Comms Minister position until September, when Labor lost the 2013 federal election.