Mr Anderson will sit on the frontbench as the Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, alongside his Northern Tablelands neighbour, Adam Marshall, who was promoted to Agriculture Minister.

Gunnedah MLC Sarah Mitchell was also sworn in as Education and Early Childhood Minister.

Mr Anderson said he would be working closely with the Office of Liquor and Gaming, while consulting with industry bodies over "red tape issues".

"I want to make it easier for businesses to do business," he said.

"I'll be bringing the voice of local industry groups to the government table. Quite often it's those people who have great ideas.

"We don't want to be ruled by the 23rd floor of Macquarie Street. We want those fresh ideas brought forward by grassroots people."

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Mrs Mitchell is ready to hit the ground running, having spent two years as the Assistant Minister for Education.

One of her first priorities will be to look through the NSW government's election commitments around school maintenance.

"We made it clear we want to get rid of that school maintenance backlog," Mrs Mitchell said.

The newly-minted agriculture minister said he was looking forward to tackling the "challenging portfolio".

"Needless to say it is a very tough time," Mr Marshall said.

"We are in the midst of toughest droughts in living memory.

"One of my key focus areas will be on reassessing all of the drought assistance, the suite of programs that are available on the table at the moment.

"I'll be looking forward to see what else we can do as a government, particularly given the poor seasonal outlook ahead - we're not too far away from the winter season now."

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