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This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
Dr. Ayesha Verrall, a labor novice, has been catapulted directly into the Cabinet, assuming the roles of Minister for the Elderly, Minister of Food Safety, Deputy Minister of Health and Deputy Minister of Research, Science and Innovation.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed her cabinet this afternoon. Two of the losers are Jenny Salesa and Phil Twyford, who have been demoted out of the cabinet.
Salesa has lost all her ministerial orders. Twyford, who was the responsible minister for KiwiBuild, now holds the portfolios of Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth, Associate Minister for the Environment and Associate Minister for Immigration. But they are all outside the inner circle of the Cabinet.
Andrew Little is Minister of Health, while Chris Hipkins takes on the new job of Minister of Response to Covid-19.
READ MORE:
* Cabinet shakeup: the winners and losers of Jacinda Ardern’s new lineup
* Her appointed cabinet, Jacinda Ardern now leads one of the most powerful governments NZ has seen
* The complete list of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s new cabinet
Epidemiologist Dr. Verrall is a deputy from the first-term list and the only rookie to enter the cabinet.
Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images
Epidemiologist Dr. Ayesha Verrall is a first-term deputy and the only newcomer to enter the cabinet.
She said Control got the call from Jacinda Ardern over the weekend.
“I was surprised and we talked about the options and how we would make it work.”
Verrall said she hadn’t applied for any particular role, but had tried to be prepared for any possibility.
“These are really important areas. As a doctor in a hospital, I have worked with many older people in times of difficulty and crisis in their lives, and through that work I got to know a lot about their circumstances and aspirations, and I want to learn a lot more and go deeper. this knowledge through commitment to the sector during this period and meeting people from the community.
“I am very excited to implement our plan for an Elder Care Commissioner, which is also very important.
“It’s an important watchdog role and it also has the ability to make sure that the standards of care in the industry are being met, and that’s really important because some of the people are in a vulnerable position.
“It is important to have a watchdog there to make sure standards are upheld, and they can also raise issues directly with Parliament.”
He said that at times in his medical work he has seen cases where the standards for caring for the elderly have not been met.
Formal delegations have yet to be defined, says Verrall, but as deputy health minister she has been asked to work in the area of public health.
“And one of our key public health commitments in the elections was to be smoke-free by 2025, and that’s a really ambitious goal and it will take a lot of focus to make sure we hit it.
“I think it is very important that we work towards it because there are 5000 preventable deaths a year due to tobacco.
“There are well-established measures to get us from where we are to there. The challenge will be to build consensus around them, and that is the work ahead.”
Verrall said he voted yes to the Cannabis Control and Legalization Bill in the referendum.
“Smoking cannabis is harmful, however, I voted in favor of the referendum, because the harms of people who smoke by being criminalized were what I wanted to avoid.”
He also voted in favor of the End of Life Election Law.
“I found that it was a really difficult vote and I spoke a lot with colleagues in medicine, and also with advocates, and I decided to vote in favor.”
On Covid-19, Dr. Verral said that elimination is “absolutely” the best strategy.
“You just need to look around the world to see that you can’t have just a little bit of Covid. If you let some cases in, you end up with an outbreak soon enough. So always pushing for elimination is the only way to protect us from these outbreaks. big scale.
“I think we are going to hold informative meetings on these issues in the coming days and, although I have experience in this area, I do not want to anticipate what the officials are going to describe … I am going to listen to them and make sure that I am in this new role. taking all the advice I can.
“I am eager to know what is the progress of the discussions on the bubbles with other countries and the specific criteria that will be used to determine if they are safe.”
Dr. Verrall has only had the opportunity to have a quick chat with the new Health Minister, Andrew Little.
“I am looking forward to working with Minister Little and supporting the work he is doing in implementing the Health and Disability System Review.”
It’s a big step for a new deputy to receive ministerial cabinet roles so quickly, but Dr. Verrall said she has had experience taking on big jobs.
“Since I was very young, I have taken jobs where there were great responsibilities. When I was 24, I had been assigned to work in a hospital at night with support only at the end of the phone, so I just need to approach This job with the same diligence, hard work, and conscientiousness that everyone else has, and I just need to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground and do it thoroughly. “
He still doesn’t know where he will be in the Hive.
“Currently, my office is my purse and my car. So I’m looking forward to solving that.”
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
