Premier Paula Cox promised changes to the way Cabinet is structured and she certainly delivered yesterday, both expanding her Cabinet and reshaping a good many Ministries.

Simply by being bigger, the new Cabinet looks markedly different from the slimmed down group that Premier Dr. Ewart Brown led. His ten-person Cabinet, made up of eight MPs and two Senators, has been expanded to 13, with the number of MPs increasing to 11.

Because of the expansion, she only had to drop one MP, former Education Minister Elvin James, while bringing in four.

This Cabinet will also have more women as Dame Jennifer Smith and Patrice Minors join Ms Cox, Neletha Butterfield and Sen. Kim Wilson. That's good for the Country; this kind of diversity is important. More than that, former Premier Dame Jennifer's experience will be critically important and she will be a good sounding board for Ms Cox.

Still, it is regrettable that no room could be found for Mr. James in the Cabinet. While it's understandable that Dame Jennifer would go to Education, Mr. James was a hardworking and straightforward Minister at Environment and Education. Indeed, despite some recent controversies, Mr. James achieved a great deal in education and helped to move the reform process forward. It can always be argued that it is not moving fast enough, but the introduction of the Cambridge curriculum alone is testament to his work.

More broadly, Ms Cox has embarked on one of the most radical restructurings of Cabinet in decades. Some of the details still need to be made public, but the division of the Ministry of Finance and the creation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Ministry under Sen. Wilson will be generally welcomed by the business sector, as will the incorporation of work permits into this area.

It is not entirely clear where Sen. Wilson's Ministry ends and Mrs. Minors' Ministry of Business Development and Tourism starts, but the emphasis of language on trade and business development is welcome given the pressing need to expand the economy.

The establishment of the Ministry of Public Information Services under Ms Butterfield seems to mean that Ms Cox also wants an emphasis on getting Government's message out.

Glenn Blakeney will now focus on Youth Affairs and Families, which seems to be a merger of Youth and Sport and Social Rehabilitation.

By splitting Tourism and Transport, which were run by Dr. Brown previously, Ms Cox has also made room for her leadership rival Terry Lister, who takes over Transport. It is in some ways surprising that he was not given one of the Finance portfolios, but from Ms Cox's point of view, it is sensible that he is back in the Cabinet. It is regrettable that Dale Butler is not; despite his poor performance in the leadership election, he is a hard worker and brings broad appeal to the party. It may be that Ms Cox simply ran out of seats as she sought to get the Cabinet balance right.

Late yesterday, Ms Cox announced she was moving procurement for major Government projects to the Cabinet Office. That decision alone will give reassurance to many people concerned about runaway spending on recent projects, so that is very welcome and will immediately restore public confidence. Now, having made major changes to the make-up and structure of Cabinet, Ms Cox now needs to make it work. On the whole, this is a good start.