Queensland cabinet reshuffle: Shannon Fentiman handed ‘poisoned chalice’ health portfolio

Shannon Fentiman will be promoted into Queensland’s troubled health portfolio, in a rare reshuffle of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s frontbench.

Annastacia Palaszczuk will promote Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman into Queensland’s troubled health portfolio in a rare cabinet reshuffle on Thursday morning.

The major frontbench overhaul is part of a bid to rehabilitate the Labor government’s image on main policy pressure points – health, housing and youth justice – ahead of next year’s state election.

In what has been described as a vote of confidence in Ms Fentiman, and a test of her leadership skills, the 39-year-old has been tasked with overhauling the ailing public health system ahead of next year’s state election.

As one Labor backbencher said: “We are going to lose the election if something doesn’t change”.

Government insiders have been growing increasingly concerned about Opposition Leader David Crisafulli’s prosecution of health and youth crime issues.

Crucial inner-city seats are also under threat from the Greens, with the minor party targeting the government over the intensifying housing crisis.

Meaghan Scanlon, who at 27 became the youngest cabinet minister in Queensland’s history, will take sole responsibility for housing in the reshuffle.

Now aged 30, Ms Scanlon came into cabinet as Environment Minister and is considered by Labor strategists as a “rising star”.

Assigning Ms Scanlon a single portfolio responsibility signals the government plans to launch a major housing agenda in the next 18-months.

Current Housing Minister, Leeanne Enoch, will take on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships portfolio.

It will mean Ms Enoch, the first Indigenous woman elected to Queensland parliament, will be in charge of negotiating and overseeing treaty deals with First Nations groups.

The rejigged cabinet, which will not see any backbenchers promoted, will be sworn in at a ceremony at Government House on Thursday.

Yvette D’Ath, one of the Premier’s closest and most loyal Right-faction allies who has served as health minister since the 2020 election, will be moved back to her previous role as Attorney-General.

Ms D’Ath has been under increasing pressure from the Liberal National Opposition over ambulance ramping, surgical waitlists and the closure of ­regional maternity wards.

Labor MPs have told The Australian they have been growing frustrated by her inability to effectively fend off LNP criticism about the health system.

“Yvette just has no self awareness at the moment,” one backbencher said on Wednesday.

If Ms Fentiman succeeds in turning the tide on health, she will be elevated to No. 2 in the pecking order of the dominant Left faction, second only to Deputy Premier Steven Miles.

One senior government source told The Australian it would be a “challenging promotion” for Ms Fentiman, with the health portfolio notoriously dubbed a poisoned chalice.

“But I would see it as a vote of confidence,” they said, noting former Premier Wayne Goss made Peter Beattie health minister in the 1990s.

“Everyone wants health to run smoothly and be fixed so they are not going to put someone in there who will f. k it up even more.

“She will challenge the bureaucracy in a way that really needs to happen. That is the whole point of being a minister, to ask questions and make decisions.”

The major reshuffle is part of a push by strategists to refresh Ms Palaszczuk team before the October 2024 election and comes weeks after the Premier suffered her worst poll numbers since sweeping to power in 2015.