Defence Minister Marise Payne now has two other ministers to help her run a large and enormously complex portfolio.
But that's still not enough, the Australia Defence Association says.
Executive director Neil James said the UK had five ministers to run a defence force just half as big again as the Australian Defence Force.
Foreign affairs and trade has three ministers and a junior minister while health has a senior minister and two junior ministers.
"A portfolio the size of defence should have three full-time ministers and on this, they have two-and-a-half," Mr James told AAP.
Mr James said the "idiot idea" that the junior defence minister could also be the minister for veteran affairs had to stop.
"The job involves too much time-consuming travel and commemoration and lots of other things and he's never available for what he should be doing in the defence portfolio."
Under the ministerial reshuffle announced on Monday, Senator Payne remains senior minister, former industry minister Christopher Pyne becomes minister for defence industry, and Veterans Affairs Minister Dan Tehan retains responsibility for defence personnel.
Mr Pyne remains in the key political job of government leader of the house, a crucial position for a government with much reduced numbers in the House of Representatives.
He's now responsible for delivering the multi-billion shipbuilding program getting under way in his state of South Australia.
And if he doesn't, voters will render their own judgment at the next election, Malcolm Turnbull made clear.
"We will be judged in 2019 by the Australian people as to whether we have delivered on the plans and the programs and the investments that we have promised," the prime minister told reporters in Canberra.
Mr Pyne said defence industry had the capacity to be an economic and innovation driver as Australia shifted from the post-mining construction boom into a new age of innovation.
"I will be focused on ensuring we grasp this once in a generation opportunity and ensure our plans for job creation and economic growth are realised," he said.
