Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has hailed Education Minister Kate Jones as "the best ever" after handing her responsibility for the 2018 Commonwealth Games - but the opposition claims her attention is being spread too thin.
LNP education spokeswoman Tracy Davis says the new portfolio will direct Ms Jones's attention away from education.
"The Commonwealth Games is the largest event Queensland will host since the 1988 World Expo and we can't get that wrong but it shouldn't be at the expense of our students' education," she said on Friday.
"Last time Labor's Kate Jones had this cobbled-together portfolio, it was revealed she spent less than 40 per cent of her time meeting education groups despite education representing 98 per cent of her budget responsibilities."
Ms Jones previously held the Games ministry along with the tourism and education portfolios until December 2015 when the Games portfolio was given to Stirling Hinchliffe in a bid to lessen her workload.
Mr Hinchliffe stepped down earlier this week as both the state's Transport and Commonwealth Games ministers, with organisers and Gold Coast city councillors quick to call for Ms Jones' to be reappointed.
Despite going back to a situation she had apparently deemed unworkable in 2015, Ms Palaszczuk was confident in Ms Jones' abilities to juggle the three positions.
"I know the tourism sector has said that she's the best tourism minister they have seen in this state and from an education perspective, Kate Jones is not just the best education minister the state has ever seen, she's the best education minister that Australia has ever seen," she said.
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Corporation chairman Peter Beattie, who led the calls for Ms Jones' to regain the role, took to Twitter to applaud Friday's appointment.
"Good news. Kate Jones has returned to the Gold Coast's Commonwealth Games portfolio," Mr Beattie tweeted.
"I look forward to working with Kate."
Ms Jones said transport and construction of Games' facilities loom as her most immediate priorities in the role, with just over a year remaining until the Games begin in April next year.
With four different people having held the Games portfolio in the past three years, Ms Jones has promised she will be the person holding the position come the start of the event.
"I won't let you down. I'm just as determined as your mayor to deliver the best Commonwealth Games for the Gold Coast," she said.
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