Mr Carter is one of the driest members of caucus and comes from a Canterbury local body dynasty.
Given Christchurch is Mr Carter's home town, and the state of affairs in the Christchurch City Council, a close watch will be kept on how he deals with the infighting and calls for the council to be replaced ,or for new elections to be held outside the normal election cycle.
Some of those calls have come from his nephew, Tim Carter, a Christchurch city councillor.
There seems to be no end to the problems for the Christchurch council, which is split over the best way to rebuild the earthquake-damaged city.
Anything previous local government minister Nick Smith proposed is likely to be taken on - and probably extended - by Mr Carter.
His father, Maurice, was a former deputy mayor of Christchurch and a member of the Canterbury Regional Council, and his brother, Philip was a former Christchurch city councillor.
Tim Carter made the headlines earlier this year when he called for the sacking of Christchurch City Council chief executive Tony Marryatt and Mayor Bob Parker.
He called for Mr Marryatt to be replaced by a commissioner, attracting comments saying that he was acting only in the "big business" interests of himself and his father, Philip.
Tim Carter has also been critical of the Christchurch council using ratepayers' funds to buy the rights to hold the Ellerslie Flower Show and properties from failed developer David Henderson.
"Our city, now more than ever, needs an institution that is publicly serving, rather than one that serves itself and the people within it," he wrote in a January press release.
David Carter may not ask for advice from his brother or nephew, but is likely to receive it, anyway.
Coincidentally, another brother, Tony, was appointed as chairman of Fisher and Paykel Healthcare yesterday.
Tony Carter was for many years chief executive of Foodstuffs (SI) and then Foodstuffs New Zealand.
David Carter's appointment was announced yesterday by Prime Minister John Key as part of the reshuffle that followed the resignation of Nick Smith.
Mr Carter remains Primary Industries Minister, and retains his local government duties.
Amy Adams will take over as Environment Minister, handing her Internal Affairs portfolio to Chris Tremain, who moves from a minister outside cabinet to number 20 in ranking.
Trade Minister Tim Groser will become the new Climate Change Issues Minister. He is known to be not such a convert to climate change as Dr Smith and the Government may seek to pull back on some of its Kyoto Protocol commitments.
Simon Bridges becomes the new Consumers Affairs Minister and Associate Minister of Transport. He will also be the Associate Minister for Climate Change.
