LNP leader Lawrence Springborg says the party will discuss who will form the shadow ministry on Tuesday. Credit:Renee Melides "Running government is running a $50 billion public business and I think this government will regret the reduction in portfolios," he said. "You have to be able to manage your portfolios and the bigger and more unwieldy it gets – and the more unfamiliar you are – the more it consumes you." Mr Springborg painted some Labor ministers as inexperienced union organisers now in charge of big public businesses. "You are union organiser last week, and you are now in charge of a multi-billion dollar public business."

"And I think that is going to be the Achilles heel of this government." Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's new 14-person cabinet – including eight women – was announced Sunday and was sworn in Monday by Queensland Governor Paul de Jersey. It includes former Labor ministers Cameron Dick (Health), Kate Jones (Education), Stirling Hinchliffe (Minister Assisting the Premier) as well as Curtis Pitt (Treasurer) as well as Ms Palaszczuk. It also includes newcomers Mark Bailey (Main Roads, Energy and Water Supply), Leanne Enoch (Housing and Public Works), Steven Miles (Environment and Heritage Protection), Coralee O'Rourke (Disability Services and North Queensland) and Shannon Fentiman (Communities and Multicultural Affairs). Mr Springborg said he specifically questioned Labor's decision to shift ministers away from portfolios they were covering in Opposition.

"What you got here is a whole range of people who were not even in parliament, let alone with any parliamentary experience," Mr Springborg said. "And even the ones who had parliamentary experience, are not now in the portfolios where they shadowed," he said. "So it takes a fair while to actually build your experience and understanding of particular portfolios – particularly multi-billion dollar portfolios." Jo Ann Miller covered health in Opposition, but is Labor's new Police, Fire, Emergency and Corrective Services minister, while Labor's former police spokesman Bill Byrne is now Agriculture and Fisheries minister. Mr Springborg said union bosses – the AWU's veteran Bill Ludwig, United Voice's Gary Bullock and the Electrical Trades Union's Peter Simpson – still had a strong influence on Labor's cabinet selection.

"Annastacia has a ministry that has been picked by union bosses, for union bosses," he said. "This is about factional deals." "And that's it. Probably, if she had her own capacity to do that she may have made different decisions." Ms Palaszczuk rejected the suggestion on Sunday. Mr Springborg said new Labor ministers would step into highly-functioning well-run ministries, completely different to the LNP when it assumed government in 2012.

"For example when Cameron Dick steps into his office in health today, he is not confronted with dysfunction, mess, the payroll debacle, fake Tahitian princes, 6500 people on the long-wait surgical list," he said. "All those things have by and large been fixed. "So they walk into highly functioning departments. "Not even Labor could make a mess of health starting this far ahead." Mr Springborg said the LNP would hold a party-room meeting on Tuesday, where he would discuss the LNP's shadow portfolios.

This is unlikely to mirror Labor's 14-person ministry, Mr Springborg said. "I will work through the selection of my shadow ministry during the course of this week and possibly even into the weekend," he said. "And it won't necessarily have to reflect that of the Labor government's ministries," he said. "Because we have a level of autonomy and flexibility which is not encumbered by the demands and the privations of the union bosses." Mr Springborg said to his knowledge there were no pressing demands on the new Labor government from either the Federal government or recently-introduced Queensland legislation.

"There is nothing which encumbers the state at the moment that requires dramatic legislative change," he said. He said he hoped Labor would examine new mental health reform legislation the previous government planned to introduce before it lost the January 31 election. "That has been quite highly consulted," he said. "And given the good acceptance of it - whilst they might want to put their own flavour on it – I would hope something like that might be able to be introduced." Stay informed. Like the Brisbane Times Facebook page.