Labor cabinet announcement LIVE: Awkward moment Nat Barr struggles to get an answer after she asks the question on everyone’s mind about Albo’s next move

Nat Barr is no stranger to addressing the elephant in the room.

The Sunrise host quizzed Tanya Plibersek about whether she would keep her Environment portfolio in the new Labor cabinet, set to be unveiled later today.

In comments last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described her as an ‘outstanding senior minister’ and said he expected her to be handed a senior portfolio.

But Plibersek did her best to be diplomatic, telling Barr that it was ‘completely a matter for the Prime Minister’.

That’s not strictly true: the PM is in hock to the powerful factions within the Labor party and they are really the ones who decide who is in and who is out.

‘I was very grateful last week that my colleagues named me as one of the people who will be on the frontbench,’ Plibersek said, insisting again that it was ‘100 per cent an issue for the PM’.

So Barr tried a different tack, asking the current Environment Minister what she would like, if it were up to her.

‘Oh, I am just…,’ she floundered.

‘Honestly, Nat, so grateful that we won the election, so grateful to be in such a large and diverse caucus, and thrilled to be selected to be on the frontbench again.

‘I just want to make a contribution to Australia. I just want to keep doing a good job for the government and for the people of Australia.’

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma, who was also appearing on the program, let out a wry chuckle.

Barr said ‘that’s a lovely answer’, before trying for a third time.

‘I did notice Jim Chalmers said you’re an outstanding senior minister and he expects you to have a senior portfolio. So, you know…if you were a betting woman, what would you say?’, she asked.

Plibersek dissembled for the third time, now quite adept at the humble team player act.

‘The first day that I walked into Parliament House, the first day I worked there, I just thought how amazing this country is,’ she gushed.

‘My parents came here as refugees in the 1950s after the Second World War. And I got elected to the Australian Parliament, and every day that I’m there, I consider just the most enormous privilege, and to actually be a member of the executive is beyond anything I ever anticipated in my life.

‘I genuinely am so grateful.’

Let’s see what she says if the PM decides to snub her once again.

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes has slammed Angus Taylor for recruiting Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as his running mate.

Senator Price defected from the Nationals party room to sit with the Liberal Party room.

As a member of the Country Liberal Party, she can choose between the two. But it was widely seen as a betrayal.

‘To me, it feels like turning up to an RSL club with a membership form and then saying by the way I’m going to run for the board and I want to be president,’ Senator Hughes told Sky News.

‘It just wouldn’t work that way.

‘Angus Taylor has insulted not only every Liberal woman but every Liberal Party member in the parliamentary team by saying, “Look, none of you were quite up to the job, I’ve had to go an recruit someone else”.’

The outrider for the Nationals leadership, which will be decided within hours, is pushing for the junior coalition party to dump the ‘ridiculous’ net zero emissions target.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan (pictured, below) will challenge current party leader David Littleproud when Nationals politicians go to a vote on Monday afternoon.

He hopes to give the Coalition a ‘fighting chance’ at the next election after Australian voters delivered a bruising defeat at the most recent political contest.

‘I don’t think the Australian people were given enough of a choice at the last election,’ he told 2GB on Monday.

‘(At the election) we basically said, “look, things are bad but we’re not proposing any major radical changes to fix it”.

‘I have been an agent of change.’

Party leaders generally sit in the lower house, but having leaders in the Senate is not unprecedented, he said, pointing to the Greens who will soon appoint a leader from their upper chamber team.

‘It’s unconventional … (but) we are in unconventional times,’ Senator Canavan said.

‘The Liberal-National coalition has suffered the worst defeat since World War II and so I think it is time we perhaps look to unconventional responses to get ourselves back in the game.’

His opposition to cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, and his outspoken nature, have given him recognition within the party and in the regions.

On Monday, he continued to label moves towards net-zero as ‘craziness’ and vowed to dump the policy if he wins the party leadership.

He has also urged his party to diversify from its usual rural and regional voter base and run more candidates in outer-suburban seats, noting many in these areas feel forgotten by ‘capital city-based media’.

Mr Littleproud is still tipped to re-take the Nationals crown, but while Senator Canavan says he has done an excellent job change is needed.

‘We didn’t win,’ he said, of the Coalition’s shattering federal election loss on May 3.

‘This job, like any major leadership role, is a performance-based job, and I think we do need a different strategy.’

The Nationals will have one less person in their partyroom meeting on Monday after Northern Territory Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price moved to the Liberal party room from the Nationals.

She’s now running for the deputy Liberal leadership under leader contender Angus Taylor ahead of a vote on Wednesday.

Nationals politicians, including Senator Canavan, have lashed Senator Price for the move, although she can choose which party room to sit in.

‘Jacinta, if she wanted to do this, she could have done it a different way,’ he said.

‘I also don’t think it’s fair for the Northern Territory people.

‘She was elected over a week ago on a platform that she would sit in the National party room.’

The Labor government is likely to have at least 92 seats in the lower house, and the coalition 40, out of 150 spots. Some eight seats are still in doubt.

Anthony Albanese is preparing to announce his senior team for Labor’s second term in office, with fresh faces poised to join the ministry.

The finalised ministerial line-up is anticipated on Monday after Labor locked down more than 90 seats in a convincing election victory.

Competition for leadership spots has been fierce following the influx of new talent and the usual factional carve-up between the states and the left and right factions.

Factional manoeuvring has already claimed two senior ministers, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry Minister Ed Husic.

The latter used an appearance on ABC’s Insiders to slam the call endorsed by Deputy Prime Minister and right leader Richard Marles, with Husic labelling him a ‘factional assassin’.

Sam Rae, Daniel Mulino, Jess Walsh and Tim Ayres will be elevated to the frontbench.

Some cabinet appointees will be handed fresh portfolios but Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Trade Minister Don Farrell will remain in the same jobs.

The refreshed leadership team will sink its teeth into Labor’s second-term policy agenda, with Albanese nominating 20 per cent cuts to student debt as a top priority for the new parliament.

The PM has also declared a ‘clear mandate to build more housing’ to help address affordability woes.

Building 100,00 homes for first-time buyers featured in the party’s election pitch, along with five per cent deposits.

Labor has a few outstanding agenda items it hopes to knock over in its second term, including establishing a federal environment protection agency.

The Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens are all locked in leadership battles.

Liberals deputy leader Sussan Ley and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor are vying for the top spot, with Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price joining forces with Mr Taylor in a tilt for deputy leader.

A party room vote is scheduled for Tuesday.

In the Nationals’ party room, incumbent leader David Littleproud also faces a challenge from Queensland senator Matt Canavan.

The Greens are also without a leader after Adam Bandt lost his seat almost 15 years since he was first elected to parliament.

Senators Mehreen Faruqi and Sarah Hanson-Young are shaping up as frontrunners ahead of the party room vote on Thursday.

A third leadership contender has emerged in the race to take over the reigns of the Liberal Party.