Anthony Albanese has promoted or handed four female Labor frontbenchers new posts in a pre-election reshuffle triggered by the retirement of NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister revealed his frontbench line-up for this year's federal election as Shorten quits politics to become vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra.

As Guardian Australia noted on Tuesday, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth will oversee major reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme to curb its ballooning costs and participant numbers.

Early Childhood Education Minister Dr Anne Aly will assist Rishworth in managing the new primary NDIS unit.

Finance, Women and Public Services Minister Katy Gallagher will add Shorten's government service responsibilities, which include responsibility for welfare agencies such as Centrelink, to her already broad remit.

Shorten's retirement leaves a vacancy in Labour's 23-member cabinet, which will be filled by Aged Care and Sport Minister Anika Wells.

Wells' promotion means the gender split in the cabinet is 12 men and 11 women.

Albanese hailed the 39-year-old as an "outstanding" minister and highlighted her role last year in shepherding legislation to reform the aged care funding model.

Wells' promotion will be seen as a snub for Western Australia, which still has just one minister in its cabinet. Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh has been overlooked for promotion ahead of the election.

Rishworth is seen as Shorten's logical successor as NDIS minister because she already has policy responsibility for disabled Australians who are not part of the scheme.

She also oversees the rollout of a new disability support system, called Basic Support, designed to reduce the burden on the NDIS, which now has more than 680,000 participants.

The decision to merge the NDIS and social services portfolios under one minister has disappointed disability advocates who wanted the two roles to remain separate.

Ross Joyce, chief executive of the Australian Federation of Disability Organizations, which represents 42 disability organisations, said the move was "a step backwards".

"We were very clear that it should be separated, that the program was too big to have just one minister responsible for many other important (responsibilities)," he said.

Joyce said responsible ministers needed to work more directly with disabled people.

"How will the minister devote his time to dealing with the significant issues that are happening within the NDIS?" he said.

Mr Richworth said the departure of Shorten, who helped design the NDIS as deputy minister in the Gillard government, left a "big hole to fill".

"He oversaw major reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and has been a champion of the plans introduced by Labor from the outset," she said.

"Under his leadership we have seen disabled people return to the center of the NDIS."

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is also preparing for a pre-election reshuffle to replace retiring frontbenchers Simon Birmingham and Paul Fletcher.

Dutton has not yet given a timetable for an announcement.