Rudd appoints six female cabinet ministers PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says the women in his ministry are there based on their talents, not their gender. Mr Rudd has appointed six women to his cabinet, the largest number in Australian parliamentary history. Overall, there are now 11 women in the ministry. "I'm a guy who believes in meritocracy, and when you find people of merit, they should be promoted," he told reporters in Newcastle on Monday. Mr Rudd denied the elevation of women was a peace offering to offset any backlash from his part in rolling Australia's first female prime minister. He pointed out that he went to an election with Australia's first female deputy prime minister in Julia Gillard, recommended the appointment of the nation's first female governor-general, Quentin Bryce, and appointed the country's first ambassador for women and girls. "I actually don't see things through the prism of gender - I never have, and I never will," he said. When asked whether those women had gone unrewarded in the Labor Party in the past, Mr Rudd admitted that the party could be "a tough beast" on the question of gender. He said it had been hard going for women on both sides of politics, and he paid tribute to the trailblazers of the past who had made it easier for women to take on such positions. We need an Australia where these questions of gender aren't asked ... I look forward to that day," Mr Rudd said. Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek and Jenny Macklin will be joined in cabinet by Jacinta Collins, Catherine King and Julie Collins. Melissa Parke enters the outer ministry as international development minister.