In 1981, academic Patrick Weller teamed up with renowned political;commentator and journalist Michelle Grattan to publish Can Ministers Cope?,;a study of the challenges facing Australia’s federal government ministers. ;;With the federal Labor government just twenty months into its first term in;office, it was time to revisit the question ‘Can ministers cope?’ and to broaden;the focus to ask how they cope, especially as relatively young and sometimes;inexperienced players, in the transition to government after a long period in;opposition. ;Anne Tiernan and Patrick Weller draw on extensive interviews with current and;former ministers, ministerial staffers and senior officials, to discover how a new;ministry learns to juggle their simultaneous roles of member of Parliament and;Cabinet, local constituency representative, and media spokesperson, not to;mention their lives outside work. ;Learning to Be a Minister is an in-depth examination of the day-to-day life of;Australia’s federal ministers at work.