Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor step down from frontbench as Albanese prepares to reshuffle ministry

Cabinet ministers Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor are standing down from the frontbench, opening vacancies for Anthony Albanese to reshuffle his ministry.

Burney, 67, Minister for Indigenous Australians, and O'Connor, 62, both told Albanese they will not contest the next election. They will serve out their terms on the backbench.

This is the first reshuffle Albanese has had. The prime minister told a news conference on Thursday the ministers stepping down would enable a “refresh” of the ministry.

Immigration minister Andrew Giles, a left-wing factional ally of the PM, is considered certain to be moved to another job. He has struggled to deal with issues in his area, especially the fallout from a High Court decision that forced the release of long-term detainees, many of whom had committed serious offences, and some of whom were charged with new crimes.

Some advocates argue that immigration should be elevated to cabinet, given its importance and political sensitivity.

Giles’ senior minister, Clare O'Neil, who holds the Home Affairs portfolio, may also be shifted. There has been speculation that Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, a strong performer, could be put into home affairs.

Albanese will announce the reshuffle on Sunday. Although it is a formality, nominations will be called from caucus for the vacant spots in the ministry. Under Labor rules, caucus in theory chooses members of the ministry – in practice, the factions and the leader do so. The leader allocates portfolios.

Burney was the government’s frontrunner in last year’s unsuccessful Voice referendum.

Favourite to take Burney’s portfolio is her assistant minister, senator Malarndirri McCarthy, a Yanyuwa woman who previously served in the Northern Territory parliament.  \

Burney, appearing at the joint press conference with Albanese and O'Connor, said that after 21 years in politics, “it’s time for me to pass on the baton to the next generation”.

Burney was elected to the New South Wales parliament in 2003, the first Aboriginal person to serve in that parliament. She held several state portfolios.

In 2016, she won the federal seat of Barton, becoming the first Aboriginal woman in the House of Representatives.

In opposition, she held various shadow portfolios, becoming shadow minister for Indigenous Australians in 2019. She followed the Coalition’s Ken Wyatt, also Indigenous, as the minister for Indigenous Australians after Labor’s win in 2022.

The announcement she would not run for another parliamentary term was not unexpected, although last month she said she expected to be in her portfolio after the election. During this term she has suffered poor health.

O'Connor, who holds the Melbourne seat of Gorton, is a veteran of two Labor governments.

In the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government he served in the portfolios of employment, immigration and citizenship, small business, housing, human services, home affairs, and employment participation.

O'Connor told the news conference he had been a minister “for every day, federally, when Labor has been in office since the election of the Rudd government”.