Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is set to return to the Liberal Party frontbench, with new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor finalising his reshaped Shadow Cabinet.
Taylor has appointed Price as Shadow Minister for Small Business, Skills and Training, marking her reinstatement to the senior Coalition team just months after she was removed from Sussan Ley’s shadow ministry.
Former leadership contender Andrew Hastie will also rejoin the frontbench as Shadow Minister for Industry and Deputy leader in the House of Representatives.
Deputy Leader Jane Hume will serve as Shadow Minister for Employment, Industrial Relations and Productivity.
Goldstein MP Tim Wilson, a moderate and supporter of Sussan Ley, will serve as Shadow Treasurer. Wilson was the only Liberal candidate to win back a seat from a Teal Independent at the 2025 election, defeating Zoe Daniel.
Tasmanian Senator Clare Chandler, who appeared alongside Wilson, Hume and Taylor will serve as Shadow Finance Minister.
Chandler was the first MP to submit her resignation from shadow cabinet, following Taylor’s quitting last Wednesday evening.
Price’s comeback follows her September 2025 departure from the shadow ministry, when Ley asked her to step down after a dispute over comments Price made about Indian migrants and her refusal to publicly endorse Ley’s leadership.
Price (pictured) will return to the Liberal Party frontbench as part of Angus Taylor’s team
Tim Wilson (pictured) has been appointed as Shadow Treasurer under Angus Taylor
In September last year, Price told the ABC the Albanese government was accepting ‘large numbers’ of Indian migrants to bolster Labor’s vote share, an assertion she later conceded was a ‘mistake’.
Ley considered the remarks ‘deeply hurtful’ to Indian Australians and said maintaining confidence in the leader was a fundamental requirement for serving in the shadow ministry.
At the time, Ley declared that Price had ‘failed the test’ expected of shadow ministers. Price later described her comments as ‘clumsy,’ though she stopped short of issuing an explicit apology.
Sussan Ley’s former deputy Ted O’Brien will shift into the role of Shadow Foreign Minister, supported by Senator Dave Sharma, who will serve as Shadow Minister for International Development.
Liberal Senate leader Michaelia Cash will shift to Shadow Attorney-General.
Some moderate MPs who backed Ley have also held their positions on the frontbench.
Senator Anne Ruston will continue as Shadow Health Minister and Deputy Leader in the Senate.
Berowra MP Julian Leeser will remain Shadow Education Minister, while NSW Senator Andrew Bragg will retain his housing portfolio and take on the additional role of Shadow Environment Minister.
Key Angus Taylor supporter Claire Chandler (pictured) will serve as Shadow Finance Minister
Ley backers such as Anne Ruston (front) and Andrew Bragg (back) remain in Shadow Cabinet
Dan Tehan will replace Alex Hawke as Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives.
Hawke, one of Ley’s biggest supports, has been dropped entirely.
Ley ally and NSW Senator Maria Kovacic, will remain, serving as Shadow Assistant Minister for Women and Shadow Minister for Productivity and Deregulation.
Senator James Paterson, a key figure in Taylor’s victory over Ley, will serve as Shadow Minister for Defence.
The National Party will also rejoin the Shadow Cabinet following the Coalition split earlier this year.
Senators Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald, and Ross Cadell, who resigned after voting against Labor’s hate‑speech laws following the Bondi terror attack, will now return to the frontbench.
NSW Senator Jess Collins, who moved the spill motion against Sussan Ley, has not been promoted to the cabinet.
Just days after Taylor ousted Ley as Liberal leader, Price used a fiery appearance on The Karl Stefanovic Show to signal her political comeback.
Bridget McKenzie (front) and Ross Cadell (right) will return along with Susan McDonald
‘I’m back, baby. I’m back. Don’t worry about that. I’m back,’ she said.
‘I was having a breather, but I’m back.’
Price also targeted colleagues she accused of abandoning her during last year’s controversy, specifically Hawke, who had publicly urged her to apologise.
‘I think it was fairly evident that Mr Hawke there had a good old crack,’ she said.
‘I had a very stern conversation with him.’
