As part of the reshuffle Coonan has been appointed deputy leader of the Senate under Finance Minister Nick Minchin.

Other appointments include Kevin Andrews to the Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio, Brendan Nelson as Defence Minister, Philip Ruddock as Attorney General and Julie Bishop has the Education, Science and Training portfolio.

The Australian Computer Society was unable to comment immediately but Computerworld will provide more details of the reshuffle in updated stories to follow.