Speaker 1: Culor. I'm Richard Martin in for Chelsea Daniels and this
Speaker 1: is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the
Speaker 1: New Zealand Herald. Prime Minister Christopher Luxen has kicked off
Speaker 1: the political year with the first major reshuffle of his cabinet.
Speaker 2: Going to be a lot more to say in the
Speaker 2: coming days and weeks ahead on our plan to unleash
Speaker 2: growth this year. Today I can announce that that fresh
Speaker 2: focus also means refreshing my team. In addition to her
Speaker 2: role as Minister of Finance. I'm really pleased that Nicola
Speaker 2: Willis will become Minister of Economic Growth.
Speaker 1: Doctor Shane Ritti has lost health to Simeon Brown and
Speaker 1: has been bumped down cabinet rankings, while Melissa Lee has
Speaker 1: been stripped of all portfolios in favor of first term
Speaker 1: MP James Meaghan. Today on the Front Page, we're joined
Speaker 1: by m Zied Herald political editor Claire Trevette to discuss
Speaker 1: the big winners and losers. So first off, Claire, can
Speaker 1: you give us an overview of which portfolios of traded
Speaker 1: hands and who are national has a new job to do?
Speaker 3: So the biggest moves, of course, was Shane Retty being
Speaker 3: dumped out of health and simm and Brown being put
Speaker 3: into health. That's the kind of one that scrabbed most
Speaker 3: of their attention so far. Beneath that was Nikola Willis
Speaker 3: being given a much more kind of I've called her
Speaker 3: the Grand Poobar of all things to do with money
Speaker 3: in the economy. She's got her economic growth portfolio added
Speaker 3: to her finance portfolio, which gives her more of a
Speaker 3: I guess helicopter view of the whole economic program that
Speaker 3: the government is trying to drive. So it puts the
Speaker 3: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment or mb as it's
Speaker 3: easier to call it, under Nikola Willis's watch kind of
Speaker 3: boosts up that side of things as well as finance,
Speaker 3: which is mainly treasury, so they're kind of not really conflicting,
Speaker 3: but you might say complimentary sectors of the kind of
Speaker 3: fiscal management and economic management are now both under Willis's watch.
Speaker 3: And that was the change that was mainly highlighted by
Speaker 3: Christopher Upsy, because he's very keen to highlight his own
Speaker 3: attempts to put a kind of laser focus on the economy,
Speaker 3: which is one of the biggest areas of problem for
Speaker 3: any government, and at the moment. In particular, it's one
Speaker 3: that the government can easily get on the back foot
Speaker 3: on as his health, to be honest, so he's trying
Speaker 3: to kind of bring fixits in for two of the
Speaker 3: biggest problems that they're facing the year. That meant Nichola
Speaker 3: Willis lost her public service portfolio. She won't necessarily be
Speaker 3: unhappy about that because she's a Wellington based MP who
Speaker 3: stands in Wellington electorates and for the last year she's
Speaker 3: had to stand there and tell all the public servants
Speaker 3: of Wellington that they're going to be losing their jobs
Speaker 3: and there's cuts coming and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 3: So she won't be upset about that. That's gone to
Speaker 3: the very capable hands of Judith Collins and Simeon Brown
Speaker 3: has lost his beloved Potholes fund in the Transport portfolio
Speaker 3: that's gone to Chris Bishop, and Energy and Local Government
Speaker 3: have both gone to Simon Watts, who is something of
Speaker 3: the kind of I guess quiet achiever. His ranking hasn't changed,
Speaker 3: but he's been given those two pretty hefty portfolios, which
Speaker 3: is a reward for his competent handling of in his
Speaker 3: first year. I guess as a Minister because he's performed
Speaker 3: pretty creditably in his previous ones, so those are kind
Speaker 3: of the big keynotes. There's one minister out, which is
Speaker 3: Melissa Ly. There was no real reason given for Melissaly
Speaker 3: losing the place. She was the only MP of of
Speaker 3: Asian descent in the cabinet and was Ethnic Communities Minister.
Speaker 3: She had been demoted from cabinet earlier because of lut
Speaker 3: since dissatisfaction with her handling of the media and broadcasting portfolio.
Speaker 3: I was a little bit surprised by that move, to
Speaker 3: be honest, and I'm assuming it's performance based, but Lutson
Speaker 3: may have ongoing concerns about her performance, but he didn't
Speaker 3: spell that out to his credit. Maybe that was a
Speaker 3: bit of an optical move for I guess a government
Speaker 3: which has always struggled with questions around its diversity to
Speaker 3: do that. So a little bit risky making that move,
Speaker 3: but it hasn't got that much attention yet.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty five, health will also be a priority
Speaker 2: area for our government and last year Shane RITTI worked
Speaker 2: hard to reset the culture and also the performance of
Speaker 2: Health New Zealand. We established targets and we refresh the
Speaker 2: leadership of Health New Zealand, and I'm confident the organization
Speaker 2: is heading in a much better direction than it was
Speaker 2: when we entered office. But I've also heard New Zealand's
Speaker 2: as concerns they expect to see even more progress key
Speaker 2: we's ensuring that they can access polity care they need
Speaker 2: when they need it, and so to deliver on that expectation,
Speaker 2: I've decided to appoint Simon Brown as Minister of Health.
Speaker 1: So did Shane Ritty actually do a bad job as
Speaker 1: Health Minister? Or is it just him taking the fall
Speaker 1: for the issues that the health sector is facing anyway?
Speaker 3: And I think it's really necessarily either of those. I
Speaker 3: don't think he did a bad job as such. He
Speaker 3: did an adequate job of some of it. It's in
Speaker 3: Christopher luxen Refe rained from putting it down to his
Speaker 3: performance as such. He kind of justified as saying, well,
Speaker 3: as circumstances change and as issues get more prominence, he
Speaker 3: looks at whether or not the right person's in the
Speaker 3: right job or not. Now, when Shane Betty was first
Speaker 3: appointed to that was the health sector looked a lot different.
Speaker 3: The Government's found out a lot more since then, and
Speaker 3: big changes have happened to it. It has become a
Speaker 3: big issue for the government. All the headlines are on
Speaker 3: things like deficits and sacking the boards and less the
Speaker 3: levy warning of radical reform being needed. There's ongoing. It's
Speaker 3: always high in the public's mind. It's been creeping up
Speaker 3: the issues of most concerned to voters, and so he's
Speaker 3: decided that the time has come to put a more
Speaker 3: political hardball in. I guess which he thinks is Simmy
Speaker 3: and Brown, because Simeon has proved to be a fairly
Speaker 3: quick and decisive actor in his transport and local government
Speaker 3: portfolios in particular. So it's kind of a big test
Speaker 3: for Simon Brown. He has given lucks and reason to
Speaker 3: put that test to him. Be interesting to see what
Speaker 3: he does, So we will wait and see. It's the
Speaker 3: first social kind of portfolio that Simeon has had. He's
Speaker 3: always had kind of economic portfolios, so it will kind
Speaker 3: of round him out in that way. He's kept a
Speaker 3: vague foot in the door of the economic portfolios by
Speaker 3: kept getting state owned enterprises portfolio as well. She used
Speaker 3: to be with Paul Goldsmith, and I think that's predominantly
Speaker 3: so he still has some economic portfolio under him, and
Speaker 3: interestingly he's also maintained the jobbers minister for Auckland, which
Speaker 3: is predominantly because he's built a very constructive relationship with Auckland,
Speaker 3: where Wayne Brown.
Speaker 1: Judith Collins and Chris Bishop as well are picking up
Speaker 1: quite a lot of slack in this announcement. With seven
Speaker 1: portfolios each, is that a bit too much for a
Speaker 1: minister to handle? Do you think it is?
Speaker 3: It is quite a lot. It often depends on the portfolios.
Speaker 3: Bishop's a pretty big and there's a lot happening in
Speaker 3: all of them. He's lost his favorite portfolio, which is
Speaker 3: s bored in recreation, but he's kept an associateship. It's
Speaker 3: often the case, and it was the same with the
Speaker 3: former Labor government, that a handful of ministers get a
Speaker 3: massive workload and the rest of them don't get quite
Speaker 3: so much of a workload. So he's picked up transport
Speaker 3: of course, which does dovetail in a bit with his
Speaker 3: infrastructure portfolio and also with housing when it comes to
Speaker 3: things like new housing developments and stuff like that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's quite a lot. Judith Collins is the most experienced
Speaker 3: minister that they have, so she will be fine some
Speaker 3: of her portfolios aren't that public facing, so she hasn't
Speaker 3: got the same public pressure on her. The biggest one
Speaker 3: she's picked up is that public service one, and she's
Speaker 3: shared science, Technology and Innovation to Shane Theirs, which is
Speaker 3: one of his new portfolios. So they have kind of
Speaker 3: had something taken off their hands to fit in the
Speaker 3: new portfolios that they've taken on. But it is a
Speaker 3: start contrast from some of the ones at the bottom
Speaker 3: of the cabinet ranking, such as Matt Doc who has
Speaker 3: had one, two, three portfolios taken off him and an
Speaker 3: associate portfolio and now as only Minister for Mental Health,
Speaker 3: and to be honest, the only reason he is still
Speaker 3: in cabinet is because he's the only South Island mp
Speaker 3: I suspect, So that's a clear sign that he is
Speaker 3: kind of Next time LUTs and moves, it's lightly Doc,
Speaker 3: you'll slip out of cabinet. He's clearly not that enamored
Speaker 3: with Dooce's performance if he cannot trust him to have
Speaker 3: more than one portfolio.
Speaker 2: I've also decided to appoint James Meager as a minister
Speaker 2: outside cabinet.
Speaker 4: Prime minister with great power comes great responsibility and I
Speaker 4: know that you will discharge that responsibility as a man
Speaker 4: with great courage, conviction, conscientiousness and compassion.
Speaker 2: He will take on responsibility for the Hunting and Fishing
Speaker 2: and Youth portfolios and become an Associate Minister of Transport.
Speaker 2: He'll also take on a newly created role of Minister
Speaker 2: for the South Island.
Speaker 1: And then on the other hand, we've got a first
Speaker 1: term MP James Meager who's stepping up now are three
Speaker 1: portfolios and an associate. What can you tell us about him?
Speaker 1: Do you think he's sort of one of National's next
Speaker 1: big stars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, James Megha's quite well known. He used to work
Speaker 3: in Parliament. He used to work for some ministers back
Speaker 3: in the day and so he kind of knows the
Speaker 3: ropes a little bit, which is always a bit of
Speaker 3: an advantage he's been given. He's been made Minister for
Speaker 3: the South Island, which is the other signal for Ducy
Speaker 3: that he could well be replaced by James Meager if
Speaker 3: Mega works well. He was chosen by Christopher Luxen to
Speaker 3: give one of the first two maiden speeches. The other
Speaker 3: one was Katie Nimman. I suspect that when he was
Speaker 3: deciding who he would put in Luxeon was tossing up
Speaker 3: between James Mega and Katie Niman and opted for James
Speaker 3: because he was the South Island option and because he
Speaker 3: does have that previous experience in Parliament and they have
Speaker 3: only been in p's for a year, so that's kind
Speaker 3: of probably where came into play. So he is also
Speaker 3: the chair of the Justice Select Committee, so he's had
Speaker 3: a chance to show that he's up to the job,
Speaker 3: you know, up to a fairly senior job because the
Speaker 3: Justice Select Committee has been one of the most tested
Speaker 3: over the last years the government's justice reforms have gone through.
Speaker 3: He will stay as chair as well as being the
Speaker 3: Minister for the Treaty Principal's Bill submissions because he's started
Speaker 3: all the work on that, so they didn't want to
Speaker 3: disrupt all that at the last minute. So it's a
Speaker 3: good opportunity for him and I'm sure that he will
Speaker 3: be pretty quickly into Cabinet if he proves his stuff.
Speaker 1: Any other surprises that we with mentioning about this reshuffle,
Speaker 1: Mark Mitchell getting ethnic Communities is an interesting choice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a little bit of logic in that.
Speaker 3: I mean, they didn't have anyone who hearted from the
Speaker 3: Asian communities or other ethnicities really to give it to,
Speaker 3: and it went to Mark from what I can gather,
Speaker 3: because he already deals relatively closely with those communities and
Speaker 3: his police portfolio or in order and crime is always
Speaker 3: a big issue at the meeting involving the Asian community,
Speaker 3: so he already meets with them very regularly. He's also
Speaker 3: on Auckland Empey, which is where it's concentrated, and he
Speaker 3: pretty much goes to every event that there is happening,
Speaker 3: so it adds a bit of a load on him.
Speaker 3: He also picked up spored and recreation, which is quite
Speaker 3: a good one to have, to be honest, but he
Speaker 3: hasn't lost anything, so it's a bit of an increased workload.
Speaker 3: It's not that great in terms of perception. I guess
Speaker 3: that there are no Asian politicians for that portfolio to
Speaker 3: go to, and he will be relying on the likes
Speaker 3: of their kind of backbench MP's Paula Garcia and Nancy
Speaker 3: Low to help him with that one. So it has
Speaker 3: caused a little bit of mirth, I have to admit,
Speaker 3: and so we'll see how he goes on that. But
Speaker 3: he's just a naturally chatty person and always turns up
Speaker 3: to things. So I guess the bonus. The bonus for
Speaker 3: those ethnic communities is the meant their minister is now
Speaker 3: in cabinet again, whereas Melissaly was outside cabinet. So there's
Speaker 3: that too.
Speaker 1: And so just to wrap it up just overall clear,
Speaker 1: do you think this is a winning reshuffle?
Speaker 3: Well, we'll wait and see. I think that it's the
Speaker 3: right time to do it because he's had a year
Speaker 3: to assess whether or not which ministers are performing well
Speaker 3: in their portfolios and which aren't. And the ones who
Speaker 3: are performing well haven't changed that much. And that includes
Speaker 3: the Law and order groupings that includes Erica Stanford, the
Speaker 3: lights of those, they've been left to focus on what
Speaker 3: they're doing well Already. He's clearly attempting to address the
Speaker 3: economy and health. It's a big test for sim and Brown.
Speaker 3: We'll see how that goes off. I suspect that Simeon
Speaker 3: will be He has said that his main focus will
Speaker 3: be improving waiting times for GPS and the time it
Speaker 3: takes for patients to get surgical treatments. That kind of
Speaker 3: thing takes time. Their issues, there are staff shortages and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So I suspect he will be also
Speaker 3: wanting to get a few quick runs on the board
Speaker 3: through things like the infrastructure spending in health like they
Speaker 3: rebuilt of Dunedin Hospital is rankled in the South Island
Speaker 3: for a long time now and they need to come
Speaker 3: up with a solution for that. That kind of stuff
Speaker 3: is what I suspect he'll be trying to get his
Speaker 3: kind of quick early hits on to show that he's effective.
Speaker 3: But say, yeah, we'll see how it goes. It's kind
Speaker 3: of aimed at setting them up for the twenty twenty
Speaker 3: six election. I'm sure there'll be a few nips and
Speaker 3: tacks between then and now, but I wouldn't be expecting
Speaker 3: to see another massive reshuffle prior to election yere and
Speaker 3: other than if ministers decide that they're leaving in their
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six they'll get reshuffled out when they make
Speaker 3: those decisions. But yeah, it's a medium sized reshuffle. I
Speaker 3: aimed at scratching some issues of concern for lux in
Speaker 3: health and economic growth and showing they're focusing on those areas.
Speaker 3: So we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Claire, a pleasure. That's it for
Speaker 1: this episode of the Front Page. You can read more
Speaker 1: about today's stories and extensive news coverage at zidherld dot
Speaker 1: co dot nzied. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills.
Speaker 1: I'm Richard Martham. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio
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Speaker 1: for another look behind the headlines.