It is arguable which, if any, of those characteristics were on display for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s big Cabinet shuffle at the weekend. There’s a feeling that the whole event was somewhat hurried, that while some changes may have been mulled over for a while, others were rushed and far less well-thought out.
That might go some way towards explaining the inconsistent divvying up of portfolios among ministers. There will always be some unevenness in the number of areas of responsibility handed out to any individual minister, but this time the quantity of briefs for some is considerable.
Why do Chris Bishop, especially, and Judith Collins have seven portfolios each? Admittedly not all of them are especially hefty ones but, in Mr Bishop’s case, he has picked up the heavyweight transport portfolio from Simeon Brown to add to housing, infrastructure, and Resource Management Act reform, and to his duties as Leader of the House.
Ms Collins is now Minister for the Public Service, as well as Attorney-general and Minister of Defence, both big jobs, as well as being responsible for the GCSB, SIS and space.
At the other end of the continuum, Matt Doocey is now purely Minister for Mental Health, as well as being Associate Minister of Health, having been relieved of the portfolios of ACC, tourism and hospitality, and youth, and of being Associate Minister of Transport.
Mr Luxon explains this by saying he wants Mr Doocey to focus on the large and important area of mental health. From the outside it looks like Mr Doocey is very much just hanging on to his Cabinet position.
Mr Luxon says he wants to unleash a sharpened-up team to bring about the biggest changes it can during 2025. He will be well aware this is the year in which the government really has to prove itself to voters in terms of concrete results before another election comes around the corner in 2026.
The prime minister assures us he has spent the summer holiday talking to Kiwis about the state of the country, and they all said the economy was top priority. Well, as they say, they would wouldn’t they, probably most of those being National supporters. Unsurprisingly, there is not a mention of climate change or the environment in there.
That feedback will have informed Mr Luxon’s thinking ahead of the shuffle. It certainly doesn’t seem to have brought about a greener-edge to the government’s agenda.
This lack of concern for the environment — Environment Minister Penny Simmonds remains outside Cabinet — is highlighted by the curious move to shift Mr Brown’s energy portfolio to Climate Change Minister Simon Watts. Energy is a very large and resource-intensive field, and it is hard to see how the same person can advocate for us to meet our international climate-change obligations while promoting the government’s desire to drill offshore for oil and natural gas.
The science sector is desperately in need of some TLC after a right going over by Ms Collins. Those in it will be breathing a sigh of relief that Shane Reti has picked up the cudgels.
In just over a year, Ms Collins scrapped years of work which went into the Te Ara Paerangi science reforms and caused a huge uproar among researchers by meddling, seemingly with little official advice, with the Marsden Fund. New Zealand is still waiting for a new chief science adviser, and Ms Collins’ reviews of the science and university sectors, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, have yet to report back.
The hope is Dr Reti, who will understand science and the research process much better than Ms Collins, will throw away his predecessor’s razor and bring a more measured approach to a sector which should play a significant role in boosting New Zealand’s global reputation and the economy so beloved to Mr Luxon.
