By TESS IKONOMOU

With a younger, more gender-balanced Cabinet in place, Malcolm Turnbull's next big challenge is to bring together the conservative and the more socially progressive elements of his party, Monash University political scientist Dr Zareh Ghazarian said.

“Once you’ve got that, you’ve got a very strong party that can devote its entire energy on advancing the policy agenda rather than trying to look for a replacement for the incumbent,” he said.

Yesterday Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced his new ministry and it was one of firsts for both women in leadership and indigenous Australians.

The Prime Minister included five women in Cabinet, with both Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Health Minister Sussan Ley retaining their positions. Marise Payne  was named  the first female Minister for Defence.

Ken Wyatt was given the role of Assistant Minister for Health – making him Australia’s first indigenous government frontbencher.

The changes in Cabinet are in contrast to Tony Abbott’s appointed ministry, which was criticised for its lack of women.

Mr Turnbull has clearly indicated his intention to change the style of leadership and the party’s approach to creating policy.

When he announced his challenge last week, he said: “We also need a new style of leadership … we need to be truly consultative with colleagues, members of Parliament, senators, and the wider public.”

Policy disputes surrounding same-sex marriage and climate change are just some of the issues that have previously caused major rifts between the Prime Minister and his socially conservative colleagues.

It was these issues that saw him lose leadership of the Liberal Party to Tony Abbott in 2009.

Dr Ghazarian said that while Mr Turnbull was  a social progressive, "he is leading a party that has a large socially conservative base". 

The Prime Minister would not be doing “anything that will violently offend these traditional voters”, he said.

Dr Ghazarian said it was unlikely Mr Turnbull would seek to alter contentious policy issues such as gay marriage before the next federal election, which will  be held in 2016 or early 2017. 

Mr Turnbull previously told ABC’S Q&A program that he is personally supportive of legalising gay marriage.

“If there was a free vote on this matter, then I would vote for marriage equality.”

But yesterday he said he  supported the Coalition’s stance of having a plebiscite on same-sex marriage after the next election and would not allow party members a free vote on the issue. Mr Turnbull also said he would be keeping the party’s current climate change policy and reduction targets in place.

Facing Question Time for the first time as Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull was accused by the Opposition of changing his views on same-sex marriage and climate change in order to be the Liberal leader.