Roma Britnell 'happy' to keep same portfolio in new Liberal shadow cabinet

Ms Britnell romped home in November's state election, increasing her primary vote by a massive 10 percentage points and winning the primary vote in every polling booth across the electorate.

But despite increasing her electoral standing and going into her eighth year in parliament, Ms Britnell's responsibilities are largely unchanged under new leader John Pesutto.

While retaining ports and freight, she has lost consumer affairs and the key role of shadow cabinet secretary, which she had held since Matthew Guy returned as leader in February. She has also been given the opposition boating and fishing portfolio.

Mr Pesutto has appointed several newly elected MPs to key opposition roles, including Kew's Jess Wilson as finance, economic reform, and home ownership spokesperson, former tennis player Sam Groth covering tourism, sport, events and youth, and Northern Metropolitan MP Evan Mulholland taking the shadow cabinet secretary position.

Ms Britnell said she was "very happy with the decision that the shadow cabinet and John Pesutto have made", and she had asked for the portfolios she was given. The Standard asked whether Ms Britnell had requested any other portfolios, but she didn't say.

"I'm very comfortable with the decision. I'm part of shadow cabinet, so my feet are under the decision making table and that's what counts," she said.

Ms Britnell said the ports and freight role was incredibly important for South West Coast and allowed her to continue her advocacy for the region's crumbling road network.

"South West Coast has significant challenges with its road network, which affects freight and production costs coming out of Portland," she said.

"For instance if repair and maintenance on heavy vehicles costs more than it used to, that cost is passed on and makes us less competitive."

Polwarth MP Richard Riordan has been assigned the opposition housing and public transport portfolios, giving up local government and resources, after two abortive bids for leader and then deputy leader over the past fortnight. He said his two new roles offered plenty of opportunity for government scrutiny.

"I think I've long advocated for housing and public transport in the south-west and these are areas clearly identified for huge improvement, so there's a lot to work with," he said.

"Public transport is often seen as trams and trains in inner city Melbourne. I'm keen to look at the entire public transport system."

Mr Riordan said sub-par bus services were a particular concern.

"The big opportunity in regions is re-imagining our bus services. Can we better utilise those services, do we get people to train services in the most efficient way?" he said.

"There are a lot of buses taking a long time to get nowhere."