Albanese has pieced together a shadow ministry out of the ashes of an electoral thumping driven by policy as well as personality. In picking his new inner circle, Albanese has given Labor a fighting chance of rebuilding its manifesto and denying the Coalition a rare fourth term when voters next go to the polls in 2022.

The shadow cabinet boasts some strong new additions and will send a shudder up the spines of some of Scott Morrison's weakest performers.

But despite Albanese's claim of a "refreshed" frontbench, new Labor sure looks a lot like the old. Just two members of Bill Shorten's shadow cabinet - Shayne Neumann and Kim Carr - have gone. The other 19 remain in place; 12 of them largely in their old portfolios. And the fingerprints of Labor's factional powerbrokers are there for all to see.

First, the good: Kristina Keneally completes her meteoric rise in Canberra to become Labor's spokeswoman for Home Affairs. The role pits the pragmatic former NSW premier against Peter Dutton and will better insulate the opposition against claims it is weak on border protection and national security. Keneally has her haters and the government has already ridiculed her appointment but Albanese is convinced she's a political asset.

Moving Chris Bowen - a key architect of Labor's controversial taxation proposals - from shadow treasurer to health and replacing him with Jim Chalmers is a deft move that will allow the party to start axing or scaling back $120 billion in changes to superannuation, negative gearing and dividend imputation.

Keeping Bill Shorten in shadow cabinet and giving him responsibility for the National Disability Insurance Scheme is also the right call.

It respects Shorten's role as a former leader and reflects his legacy as a key player in the creation of the scheme. Shorten lost two elections but it would be a mistake to think he is not a formidable operator. Stuart Robert, the Minister for the NDIS, was already seen as Scott Morrison's biggest liability and will now be firmly in Shorten's sights.

Terri Butler's promotion to shadow cabinet and the environment portfolio is well overdue recognition.

Bringing the underutilised former Labor national president Jenny McCallister on as shadow cabinet secretary is smart, and giving Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon the resources industry on top of agriculture will help Labor repair its relationship with coal communities.

Deputy leader Richard Marles has also been wise to avoid a blowup by staying in defence instead of stealing his dream portfolio of foreign affairs from Penny Wong.

Now, the bad: Katy Gallagher, who was thrown out of Parliament amid the dual citizenship fiasco but returned to the Senate at the May 18 election, has been handed the finance portfolio and becomes central to Labor's all-important economic team.

Gallagher is talented but snatches the job at the expense of rising star Clare O'Neil, who was a no-brainer to enter shadow cabinet. Instead, Albanese has decided to allow of the party's best hopes to languish in the outer ministry for a further three years.

Ed Husic's move to the backbench remains a bad outcome for Labor. And Albanese has missed a chance to drop more underperformers from shadow cabinet who are only there courtesy of factions rather than merit.

Overall the team has more strengths than weaknesses and Albanese is right to boast that they are very capable of taking up the fight in Parliament. But that's just the start - the real work lies ahead in a major policy and values reset.

If the same team that shares collective responsibility for defeat on May 18 doesn't get it right this time, Labor's brightest stars could be stuck with 'shadow' in their titles for an excruciatingly long time.