Meet Team Rudd.

Meet the Next John Howard - except that I don’t think this one will win government.

Meet the Next Peter Costello - except that I think this one will have the guts to challenge his new leader.

And it’s going to be Bishop vs Gillard on IR. Given that these are the current and previous education ministers as well, it will be interesting to see whether Bishop will confine herself to the new portfolio or will try to match Julia across the board.

In general, the Labor Cabinet seems to make pretty good sense. Rudd had a fair bit of talent to squeeze in there, but he seems to have handled it pretty well. Now we’ll wait and see how the opposition chooses to match up in the rest of the portfolios, and to what extent Nelson opts for renewal (and attempts to wipe clean the Howard hierarchy).