Interview: Australia's new PM faces tough job of winning federal election: scholar

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made "progressive" and "ground-breaking" appointments in his cabinet reshuffle over the weekend, yet he needs to manage the high public expectations heading into the 2016 federal election.

In a wide-ranging reshuffle of his front-bench, the new prime minister appointed a woman, for the first time, Marise Payne, to be defense minister and instated the nation's first Indigenous MP, Ken Wyatt, to a cabinet position.

Turnbull's appointment of five women in cabinet is the most seen in a Liberal government, while he also rewarded his supporters from the leadership spill that ousted Tony Abbott from the top job.

The revamp might have raised the eyebrows of those on the conservative side of politics but, according to political commentator Sarah Maddison, Turnbull has managed the delicate balancing act of appealing to the public and pleasing the ultra- conservatives through his commitment to maintaining Abbott's hard- line party policy.

Maddison, associate professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, said that Turnbull's appointments will resonate with the public and those center-left on the political compass, but the tough job of convincing his colleagues to trust him in the long term will be his biggest test.

"Broadly, Turnbull has a tough job for himself. The Australian public loves him because he is more progressive and because of how he distinguished himself from the Abbott government," Maddison told Xinhua in an interview on Monday.

"Yet to get the numbers to topple Abbott, Turnbull had to make a number of considerable commitments to the conservative voices of the National Party and the right wing of the Liberal Party on some of those key issues.

"He now has to sell himself to the public as that progressive, dynamic leader who is different from Abbott, while actually being welded on to some of those key, right win policy positions."

Maddison said that by keeping Abbott-backers Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt, Mathias Cormann and Andrew Robb on the front bench, while also appointing five women and Australia's first Indigenous MP to the cabinet, Turnbull has created enough buzz in the public eye which could regain lost coalition support.

"The most surprising appointment is Marise Payne as defense minister. It's the first time that a woman has been in that role in Australia," Maddison said. "She was frankly far too progressive for the Abbott government. That results in two women being on the defense sub-committee which in itself is pretty ground-breaking."

"Ken Wyatt as assistant minister for health is also ground- breaking, to see an Indigenous MP in a portfolio role. This is the first time this has happened in Australia.

"It seems as though Turnbull is trying to strike a balance between moving on some of the old guards, (by cutting ministers) such as Eric Abetz, Kevin Andrews and Ian Macfarlane, and then of course Joe Hockey took himself out of the picture, but he hasn't completely radicalized the cabinet.

"So he has suggested through these appointments that he is different.

"He needs to be creating a look of difference for the period where he can't be all that different from his predecessor."

The ultra-conservative Nationals and far-right Liberals have been vocal in their disapproval of Turnbull's ousting of Abbott, with some threatening to break ranks from the party.

Maddison said that in order to regain the trust of the right, Turnbull has to maintain the conservative approach to policy that Abbott had shown, at least until the polls start to swing back into the coalition's favor.

"(The far right of the party) have made no secret that they don 't like (Turnbull) and they don't trust him," she said.

"The fact they made him put his commitments in writing, as it was revealed over the weekend, regarding the policy positions that he committed himself to before he got the support last week is indicative of that lack of trust.

"The only thing that will win that trust is him leading that party through to a successful election. That would buy him some more wiggle room with the conservative voices in the party."

However Turnbull's balancing act will not be made easier by poor poll results leading up to the leadership coup. The public were disappointed in the Abbott government's first budget, and the Liberals haven't yet been able to regain the trust of the voters in the 18 months since.

But drastic changes to Liberal party policy won't be tolerated by the far-right, despite what the public want to see from Australia's new, progressive prime minister.

"Between now and the (next federal election), Turnbull has a tough job. The public are going to be saying 'let's see what you can do'," Maddison told Xinhua.

"For the rest of this year, he is going to be focused on reigning in public expectations while simultaneously dragging his party forward."

Abbott, a more conservative Liberal Party leader, was ousted by Turnbull last Monday despite having served just two-thirds of his first term as prime minister. Endi