Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has unveiled her new frontbench, after the Coalition officially reunited days after its acrimonious  split.

The Liberal and National parties confirmed they had reached a new Coalition agreement on Wednesday.

Hours later, Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud fronted the media to confirm the new shadow portfolios.

There are some significant absences, with no room for former deputy PMs Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack. Liberal senators Jane Hume and Sarah Henderson have also missed out.

“Having spoken to every single member of my 54-member party room today, I know that we have harnessed the talent that we need in this shadow ministry going forward but that there is not a role for every single person,” Ley said.

“Opposition is not about hierarchies … It’s about getting every player on the field, fighting the fight.”

Significant appointments include:

• Ted O’Brien – shadow treasurer
• Michaelia Cash – foreign affairs
• Andrew Hastie – home affairs
• Angus Taylor – defence
• James Paterson – finance
• Tim Wilson – industrial relations and small business
• Kerrynne Liddle  – Indigenous Australians
• Andrew Bragg – productivity and deregulation
• Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – defence industry and personnel
• Bridget McKenzie – transport, infrastructure and regional development

Gisele Kapterain, who is in the midst of a recount in the Sydney seat of Bradfield, will be appointed shadow communications, technology and digital economy minister if she is successful in winning.

“This is a new parliament with new people being elected and a new agenda moving forward. I am thrilled that I have so many terrific colleagues,” Ley said.

Wednesday’s announcement followed talks this week between Ley Littleproud to thrash out a fresh Coalition agreement. Littleproud said the talks had been productive.

“We’ve laid the boundaries and foundation stones and while there’s been gossip and innuendo through the halls of the gallery, let me be clear – Sussan and I have always kept the lines of communication open. We’ve risen above that. We haven’t let us get distracted by what’s been reported,” he said.

Earlier, McCormack took another swipe at last week’s split, saying it was made in haste while Ley was mourning her mother.

“In the past, normal procedure has been a leader: We go to the party room, discuss with the party room what we want to put on the table as part of the Coalition arrangements and then that would be taken to the Liberal Party leader and worked through,” he said.

“Then other discussions were taken, which took place … in Albury, that were not brought back to the party room and we only found out via the media.”

Under pressure from conservative heavyweights inside and outside parliament, the Nationals walked back their May 20 threat to abandon the long-standing partnership after the landslide election loss to Labor.

The parties reunited after the Liberal party room gave in-principle support to four policy demands from the Nationals – a recommitment to nuclear energy, a regional investment fund, powers to break up big supermarket chains and universal telecommunications coverage.

Labor seals third Senate seat

Elsewhere, a former MP whose electorate was abolished ahead of this year’s election will return to Canberra as a senator.

Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah won the final Senate spot for Victoria, with the Australian Electoral Commission confirming the state’s six senators on Wednesday.

She will be one of three Labor senators elected in Victoria, alongside Raff Ciccone and Jess Walsh.

Senior Liberals James Paterson and Jane Hume were also returned, as was Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May.

Ananda-Rajah was elected to parliament in 2022 for the seat of Higgins in Melbourne, the first Labor MP to win the former blue ribbon electorate.

But Higgins was abolished in a redistribution ahead of the May 3 election, leaving her without a spot in the lower house.

She was placed in the third slot on Labor’s Senate ticket for Victoria, and was considered unlikely to win.

However, the national swing to Labor led to the party winning three Victorian Senate seats in an election for the first time since 2007.

It comes as a partial recount in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein gets underway on Wednesday. The electoral commission will recount all first preferences on ballot papers, as well as any informal votes.

Liberal Tim Wilson was ahead of independent MP Zoe Daniel by 260 votes at the end of counting and preference distribution.

Daniel submitted a request for a full recount to the electoral commission on Saturday.

The recount in the Sydney seat of Bradfield also continues. Liberal Gisele Kapterain leads independent Nicolette Boele by just 14 votes, as ballot papers are scrutinised again.

-more to come