Julia Gillard says it is wrong to interpret her Cabinet reshuffle as rewarding her political backers.

The Prime Minister insists her ministerial reshuffle reflects the Government's priorities for 2012 - the economy, jobs and industrial relations.

But below the surface is the suspicion that the changes are more about rewarding her supporters and shoring up her position as leader.

To accommodate all the changes, Ms Gillard had to expand her Cabinet by one to include 22 people.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-12/gillard-denies-buying-loyalty-in-cabinet-reshuffle/3727216

"Australian Exceptionalism"… let that phrase roll off your tongue.

Now stop laughing for a moment if you can!

There's something about that phrase that just doesn't sit right with us. We're not only unaccustomed to thinking about ourselves that way, but for many it's a concept that is one part distasteful to three parts utterly ridiculous - try mentioning it in polite company sometime. Bring a helmet.

We'll often laugh at the cognitive dissonance displayed by our American cousins when they start banging on about American Exceptionalism - waxing lyrical about the assumed ascendancy of their national exploits while they're forced to take out a second mortgage to pay for a run-of-the-mill medical procedure. That talk of exceptionalism has become little more than an exceptional disregard for the truth of their own comparative circumstances.

But in truth, we both share that common ignorance - we share a common state of denial about the hard realities of our own accomplishments compared to those of the rest of the world. While the Americans so often manifest it as a belief that they and they alone are the global benchmark for all human achievement, we simply refuse to acknowledge our own affluence and privilege - denialists of our own hard-won triumphs, often hysterically so.

Never before has there been a nation so completely oblivious to not just their own successes, but the sheer enormity of them, than Australia today.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3726692.html?WT.svl=theDrum

Sixteen ministers and three parliamentary secretaries have been sworn in to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's re-jigged ministry.

The ceremony at Admiralty House in Sydney was a show of force for women, with the country's first female PM watching on as the first female Governor-General swore-in the first female Attorney-General.

The Governor General, Quentin Bryce, referred to the fight for women's rights by telling new Attorney General Nicola Roxon that her appointment was a significant occasion.

Ms Bryce told Ms Roxon that she stood upon the shoulders of women of her generation who would be delighted at the appointment.

The only person who was new to a ministry, Community Services Minister Julie Collins, was told by Ms Bryce that her elevation was also a step forward for women.

Today's ceremony means a record number of five women are in Cabinet.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/gillard27s-new-team-sworn-in/3731354?WT.svl=news0

The Prime Minister ends the year with a cloud over her leadership, exacerbated by the fallout from Monday's ministerial reshuffle. At least five of the 30 ministers now back Mr Rudd.

Kim Carr, who was demoted from cabinet, went public with his disappointment for the third day yesterday. He said Ms Gillard did not cite disappointment with his performance when she demoted him. ''I'm obviously at a loss to understand some of these matters,'' he said. Some people claim he has been punished because he leaked but there is no evidence of that.

The Tertiary Education Minister, Chris Evans, who lost his Workplace Relations portfolio, is not disgruntled and is telling colleagues he still firmly backs the Prime Minister.

Ms Gillard told the Herald her only motive was to put key people in ''the key areas of work for the government in 2012'', including disabilities, aged care and industrial relations. ''That is what is driving me.''

Fearing a campaign of destabilisation over summer, a Gillard supporter said: ''Kevin has to decide how many favours he wants to pay to Tony Abbott.''

BILL Shorten has apologised to Melbourne pie shop owner Annie Wong after "a big misunderstanding" over a hot pie.

The Workplace Relations Minister stormed out of a Melbourne milk bar last night when he believed the owner had attacked the Prime Minister as "soft"

The man tipped to be Australia's next Labor Prime Minister was accused by store owner Annie Wong of verbally abusing him after she offered to microwave a pie and swearing as he left the shop – a claim Mr Shorten denies.

"Bill Shorten came into my shop, asked for a Boscastle pie, then I say: 'Sold out, sorry,'" Ms Wong told radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell.

"He didn't say anything turns around, opens the door and goes out, then turns around again and says 'You've lost business," she said.

"I'm very angry, not happy to be treated like that."

Annie Wong said she offered to put a cold pie in the microwave for him, but warned it would be softer.

Mr Shorten told news.com.au that he believed Ms Wong had said to him "It would be soft, like Julia Gillard."

But having spoken to Ms Wong today, he now concedes the Labor supporter may have said, "It's would be soft. I like Julia Gillard."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/humble-pie-shorten-apologises-to-pie-shop-owner-over-gillard-blow-up/story-e6freuy9-1226442280533

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Bill takes the sauce bottle and shake it with apologies... A bunch of flowers would not go astray... Shorten may be like me — a bit hard of hearing... I often need people to repeat what they say, especially when in a crowd of yapping yabbies... and often I need them to elaborate on what they mean... My verbal comprehension is not what it used to be... I have a much longer fuse... Ans one thing's for sure... Julia may be quietly spoken but nothing "soft" about her serenity in the face of the most dumb idiotic (but too sneaky by half) opposition leader that ever was in this country...