Australian PM considers reshuffle in election year

Canberra, Jan 22: Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard returned from his summer break to kick off an election year today, remaining tightlipped on plans to reshape his cabinet to take on a revitalised Labor opposition.

Trailing in the polls after almost 11 years in power, Howard is due to call an election in the second half of 2007, with climate change, work laws and Australia's ongoing troop deployment to Iraq shaping up as key issues.

Analysts expect Howard to announce a small reshuffle within days, ahead of a planned speech to the National Press Club on Thursday to outline his election-year agenda, but he gave few hints on his first official day back at work.

''I never speculate about those things. Others do. I don't,'' Howard told reporters at his Parliament House office today.

Reshuffle speculation has been prompted by Sports Minister Rod Kemp's decision to retire at the next election, giving Howard a chance to freshen up his team to take on the revamped centre-left Labor opposition.

Labor in December elected a youthful new leader, Kevin Rudd, to replace veteran leader Kim Beazley, giving the party a solid boost in opinion polls going into the election year.

Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat who was previously Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, has championed Labor's plan to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq and to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The latest Reuters Poll Trend, which analyses three published opinion polls, found Labor with a healthy ten-point lead over Howard's conservative coalition government after Rudd took over the Labor leadership.

The Reuters Poll Trend, published in early January, shows Labor with 55.1 per cent support compared with 44.9 per cent for the government. Howard won a 27-seat majority at the 2004 election with 52.7 per cent overall support.

A research paper from Australia's Parliamentary Library said August 4 would be the earliest date for an election for the House of Representatives and the upper house Senate. Analysts are tipping an election in October or November.

The Australian newspaper on Monday said Howard was likely to promote high-profile politicians Malcolm Turnbull, the former head of Australia's republican movement, and former Liberal Party director Andrew Robb.

But the paper said Howard's reshuffle would be limited as senior ministers, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, have been reluctant to stand aside.

Reuters