Cabinet Secretary (Australian minister) 2007, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd created the new ministerial position of Cabinet Secretary with Australian Labor Party veteran Senator John Faulkner appointed conjointly as Special Minister of State to drive an integrity agenda. The position was carried over by Prime Minister Julia Gillard from 2010 to 2013 and again by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2013. In 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull resumed the ministerial position of Cabinet Secretary, broadening its responsibilities and including it in Cabinet. On the 18 January 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a ministerial reshuffle in which the position of Cabinet Secretary was disbanded and
Julia Gillard Rudd make the same commitment. At the leadership ballot, Gillard won comfortably by a vote of 71 to 31. Despite Gillard's defeating Kevin Rudd comfortably in the 2012 leadership spill, tensions remained in the Labor Party regarding Gillard's leadership. After Labor's polling position worsened in the wake of Gillard announcing the date of the 2013 election, these tensions came to a head when former Labor Leader and Regional Minister Simon Crean called for a leadership spill and backed Rudd on 21 March 2013. In response, Gillard sacked Crean from his position, and called a leadership spill for 4.30pm that same