The Solomon Islands Prime Minister has praised his new cabinet ministers as more mature and intelligent than their predecessors.
Earlier this week Danny Philip replaced six of his ministers with MPs who recently joined the government from the opposition.
The Prime Minister says he's optimistic new ministers such as former Central Bank governor Rick Hou and businessman Andrew Hanaria Keniasia will give the government stability.
Mr Philip has also highlighted the experience of former opposition leader Steve Abana who also crossed the floor, despite not naming him in his new look cabinet
"He's very personally responsible for bringing the group over. He would rather be on the bench and see how things are developing. He has all his boys, five of them holding ministerial positions so he's pretty happy about that."
Danny Philip says he'd been talking with Steve Abana since last year about bringing some MPs across to the government, as Mr Abana was unhappy the deputy opposition leader Matthew Wale was running the opposition.
