Four women are notable winners from yesterday’s
reshuffle.

NSW Senator Helen Coonan deserves congratulations
for becoming the first female member of the Coalition’s leadership team.

West Australian MHR Julie Bishop goes into
Cabinet as Education Minister. Bishop always appears a little too buffed and
polished, not to mention slightly too pleased with herself in Question Time, but she’s kept
a lid on the troublesome Ageing portfolio. It will be interesting how frazzled
she’ll appear dealing with another bunch of ancients – the universities.

Victorian Liberal Sharman Stone – the MP for Black
Jack’s old seat of Murray – becomes
Minister for
Workforce Participation, while Sussan Ley, the Lib who took Tim Fischer’s electorate
of Farrer on his retirement (spot a trend here?) has been made a parliamentary
secretary. Both are competent representatives of a new generation of Liberal
women parliamentarians.