Updated
ACT politician Andrew Leigh has received a promotion in the latest cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The Member for Fraser has been named as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.
Ms Gillard says Dr Leigh will bring his distinguished academic record in public policy and economics to the position.
Prior to being elected in 2010 as a federal politician, he was a professor of economics at the Australian National University.
Dr Leigh says he is honoured to take on the new role.
"I think there is a huge amount of work ahead of us over the next six months but I'm really excited to have the chance to contribute to building on the Labor reforms of the last 5-6 years," Dr Leigh said.
It means Dr Leigh will be assisting the Prime Minister on specific projects ahead of the Federal election in September.
"I think certainly there's a strong relationship between the work that I'll be doing as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, and the work that I do as Federal Member for Fraser," he said.
"When I'm out on my street stalls, or community events so often people will talk to me about the importance of maintaining those strong Labor reforms and making sure that we don't have the axe taken to the Canberra public service.
"So I see both of those as being strongly compatible with each other."
The new front bench includes Western Australian MP Gary Gray who was named as Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Tourism, and Minister for Small Business.
The cabinet reshuffle was prompted by last week's failed Labor leadership vote.
Former Regional Development and Local Government minister Simon Crean, was sacked for disloyalty after sparking the attempted coup.
While key Kevin Rudd backers Chris Bowen, Martin Ferguson and Kim Carr, all resigned from the ministry.
Topics: alp, federal-government, canberra-2600, act
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