Cabinet shakeup: the winners and losers of Jacinda Ardern’s new lineup

OPINION: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has started her term with her most dramatic cabinet shakeup yet.

His new cabinet is the first completely Labor-controlled in thirty years, which means he has plenty of room to promote new blood and recognize talent.

But even with 20 spots to allocate, there have still been several losers.

Winners

Ayesha verrall

Infectious disease expert Dr. Ayesha Verrall was parachuted directly into cabinet after being elected last month. In fact, she will be sworn in as a minister before even being sworn in as a deputy. New Zealand has not had a first-term MP directly to the cabinet since Steven Joyce joined John Key’s first cabinet in 2008.

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Verrall will be Minister for Seniors and Food Safety, two relatively light portfolios, and will be the minister of health associated with the responsibility for public health, which is much more substantial. She enters the Cabinet at rank 20.

Nanaia Mahuta

A member of parliament since 1996, Nanaia Mahuta is, along with Damien O’Connor and David Parker, one of the most experienced cabinet ministers. They gave you the Foreign Affairs folder. It is one of the most important positions in the Cabinet and is especially important in the current environment with tensions abroad.

Mahuta is the first woman to have the portfolio.

Michael Wood

Michael Wood has been an MP since 2016 and has long been a MP to watch. He has been a parliamentary undersecretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities and held the prestigious chairmanship of the Select Committee on Finance and Expenditure before becoming the main whip.

He went directly to Cabinet at number 17 and received the important Transport and Workplace Relations portfolios, held by Phil Twyford and Iain Lees-Galloway in the last term. They are two of the most important portfolios for any government, but with progress stalled in light rail and fair pay deals last period, they will be especially important in the next three years.

Grant Robertson

Grant Robertson has long been Jacinda Ardern’s closest ally. In fact, she was once the deputy on a failed Robertson leadership ticket. In the last legislature, he has often felt like the deputy prime minister in everything but name, deftly standing in for the prime minister when necessary.

Still, his promotion to deputy prime minister is a big deal and makes him the obvious choice to succeed Ardern whenever she decides to retire. For years, experts wondered whether the public would accept an openly gay man leading the country. Those questions have completely vanished now.

David clark

The former Minister of Health has managed to return from the dead after being demoted to the Cabinet fund and finally renouncing his ministerial order. Their portfolios of commerce, digital economy, statistics and state companies are not negligible, in particular Commerce, given that the Government is about to embark on a market study of the supermarket industry.

Poto Williams

Poto Williams has been a deputy since 2013, but her career is believed to have suffered thanks to her support of former leader David Cunliffe, who is not well liked by the current caucus. Her big break was Ardern’s reorganization in 2019, when she was appointed Minister of Community and Volunteer Sector and Associate Minister for Regeneration of Christchurch.

She is now number 10 in the Cabinet ranking and has been entrusted with the hard work of Minister of Police, as well as of Building and Construction.

Jan Tinetti

One of the two great climbers of the class of 2017, Jan Tinetti will enter the Cabinet directly as Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister for Women.

It will also have an associated education portfolio.

Left Allan

The other big engine class of 2017 is the East Coast MP Kiri Allan. He has had a very good fortnight, having won his former unconditionally blue National Party seat.

Allan was always linked to promotion and has long been seen as a rising star in the Labor Party – her relationship with Ardern dates back to before their time as MPs. Allan gets the conservation folder. You also get Emergency Management (the renowned civil defense portfolio).

Diversity

Ardern made sure to tell the media that his cabinet was appointed on merits and not by checking boxes, but that doesn’t stop it from being probably the most diverse cabinet in history.

Women are 8 of the 20 cabinet ministers, compared to 6 in the last cabinet. Maori make up five of the ministers, three are of Pacific descent and one is from South Asia. Three of the cabinet ministers are gay or lesbian.

But the numbers overlook something that seemed more intentional. Various operational ministries where communities of color often feel unjustly targeted are now controlled by ministers of color. Kelvin Davis, who is Maori, now controls Oranga Tamariki. Poto Williams, who is of Cook Islands descent, controls the Police.

Losers

Phil twyford

How the mighty have fallen. Twyford received enormous power when Labor first came to power after a very successful stint in the Opposition, with control of both housing and transportation. Clearly, it’s not his only fault that KiwiBuild and Auckland Light Rail failed so spectacularly, but the public certainly associated those failures with him.

His demotion to a minister outside the cabinet with two light international-faced portfolios is a brutal downfall.

Jenny Salesa

Jenny Salesa was one of the Cabinet’s quiet underperformers in the past term, having little noticeable impact on the often troubled construction industry. She is the only previous Labor Minister who was not only expelled from the cabinet, but lost any role in the executive. Your assistant speaker will be a cool comfort.

David parker

David Parker moves up two spots in the rankings and earns income and the new Oceans and Fisheries portfolio. He loses the trade with his partner Damien O’Connor.

This may not sound like losing territory, but for a minister as experienced and intellectually agile as David Parker it’s not much of a challenge. Especially since Parker was widely regarded as an option to handle Foreign Affairs.

Kieran McAnulty

Along with Allan, Kieran McAnulty has been mentioned throughout the last term as a new entrant with cabinet credentials. He is personable, intelligent, and one of the few Labor MPs capable of credibly appearing provincial. His clear intention to win Wairarapa in 2020 was a great test of his political viability, but the victory was somewhat mitigated by the number of seats Labor won in 2020.

McAnulty has been awarded the highest role outside of the executive as whip boss, which is a very serious job for a 64-MP party. But it is not yet a ministry.