Weekly Drop: Carving Up the Cake

Well, Australia had an election, the fallout dominos have started tipping while the cake is being carved...

Following the dominant Labor win in the recent Australian 2025 general election, the returned Albanese government established its Cabinet and ministry, along with the Administrative Arrangements Order setting out portfolio responsibilities, on 13 May 2025. All of which makes for a deeper analysis.

But before we head there, the Coalition – comprising the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia – is having its own quite public difficulties. In a blow-by-blow drama over the last few days, the Coalition sought to rearrange a substantial number of deckchairs across a much shallower pool of elected members, which then blew apart through apparently irreconcilable differences. At the time of writing, both sides have been looking for a way back up the cliff and away from the abyss of potential irrelevance. (The deliberate mixed metaphors reflect the circumstances.)

The Australian Greens have their own crisis of confidence and direction, also playing out publicly, though at…