Chris Bowen confirmed as new energy and climate minister, McAllister as assistant

Labor’s Chris Bowen will be appointed as the new federal minister for climate change and energy as part of the first Albanese cabinet announced on Tuesday evening.

New South Wales senator Jenny McAllister will also be sworn in as the assistant minister for climate change and energy.

In other cabinet appointments, Tanya Plibersek will be appointed as the new environment and water minister – following the defeat of Terri Butler, and Western Australian MP Madeline King will also become the new resources minister.

Bowen will officially replace Angus Taylor as the federal minister responsible for climate change and energy policy when he is sworn in by the Governor General at a ceremony on Wednesday morning.

It will mark the first time since 2013 that Australia will have a formal “minister for climate change” at the federal level.

McAllister will replace the Liberal’s Tim Wilson, who lost his seat in parliament to independent Zoe Daniel in the seat of Goldstein.

McAllister has been a strong interrogator of the Coalition’s climate and energy policies in the parliament, particularly during senate estimates hearings.

An example:

Bowen first took on responsibilities as Labor’s spokesperson for climate change and energy in early 2019, in a portfolio swap with health minister Mark Butler.

The switch had followed frustrations expressed by Labor’s right faction about Butler – a Labor Left faction member – and his performance in the role. The appointment of Bowen – who comes from Labor’s Right faction – worked to quell this discontent.

Bowen adopted a different approach to Labor’s policy development, with a greater focus on the economic benefits of a switch to renewables and supporting electric vehicle uptake.

While Labor took a reduced 2030 emissions reduction target to the election – aiming for a 43 per cent cut rather than the 45 per cent target taken to the 2019 election – Bowen was able to navigate the party through inevitable attacks from the Coalition and Murdoch owned papers.

Labor’s policies included a revamp of the Coalition’s Safeguards Mechanism to cut pollution amongst major industrial emitters and new financial incentives to support the uptake of electric vehicles.

Labor’s election pitch also included support for community energy projects, including up to 400 community batteries and 85 community ‘solar banks’.

Bowen’s challenge now will be negotiating with a parliament that will feature an expanded delegation from the Australian Greens, as well as several independent candidates who will be calling on Labor to adopt stronger targets.

Labor appears set to secure enough seats to form a majority government in its own right in the House of Representatives, however, it will be likely be dependent on crossbench support to successfully pass legislation in the senate.

The senate crossbench will likely include a dozen Greens senators, independents Jacqui Lambie, Tammy Tyrrell and David Pocock, as well as two One Nation senators.

Beyond parliament, Bowen will have the challenge of rebuilding relationships with the state and territory energy ministers after a period of antagonistic federal leadership from predecessor Angus Taylor.

Bowen will also need to repair relationships between the federal government and key players within the energy industry – with Taylor also finding himself on the outer with an electricity industry facing an accelerated exit from coal.

He will also inherit the remnants of Taylor’s ‘gas led recovery’ push and a range of unimplemented Coalition policy proposals – including the unlegislated Grid Reliability Fund.

Addressing the new Labor party room earlier on Tuesday, prime minister Anthony Albanese said that he hoped to go to the next federal election in 2025 being able to tell voters that he had ‘ended the climate wars’.

“I want the economic transformation that is dealing with clean energy and creating those high-value jobs powered by cheaper, cleaner, energy will do, to be part of the great Australian story as well,” Albanese said.

Albanese said that the new parliament would convene for the first time in the last week of July.