Senator Mitch Fifield will be sworn in this week as the new Assistant Minister Social Services with responsibility for disability services and aged care.
In opposition, Senator Fifield was Shadow Minister for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector. The simplification of ministerial and departmental titles reflects the Coalition’s determination to run a “back to basics” government.
"Having held the disabilities and carers portfolio for the Coalition for the past four years, I am extremely pleased that there will be continuity in front bench representation at ministerial level for Australians with disability, their families, carers and the organisations that support them,” Senator Fifield said.
Former minister for disability reform, Jenny Macklin has written to members of the sector lamenting the fall of the portfolio from the Cabinet under the Coalition government.
"I was disappointed to learn yesterday that the minister in charge of delivering DisabilityCare has been quietly demoted,” she wrote in an email.
"It is deeply worrying that the biggest social reform in a generation is not a high enough priority for the new government to warrant the attention of a cabinet minister."
"We need someone inside the Cabinet room to fight for people with disability,” she said.
Kevin Andrews, Minister for Social Services, will be the Cabinet Minister with principal responsibility for the department currently known as Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. It will fall to him to argue the case for the NDIS at the Cabinet table.