PMfinalises Cabinet going into election
Gerry Brownlee, who was widely tipped to be the new foreign minister, has secured the job and his promotion has created a big opportunity for freshly-minted minister Mark Mitchell.
Prime Minister Bill English finalised the Cabinet ministers he’ll take into the September election yesterday.
There were no surprises that associate education minister Nikki Kaye was rewarded with the education portfolio to take over from Hekia Parata, who announced last year she was stepping down from politics.
Both Parata and Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully, who is also retiring, stayed on in Cabinet at the last reshuffle in December with an expiry date of May 1.
Brownlee’s promotion means he’s letting his defence, civil defence and Greater Christchurch Regeneration portfolios go and that’s allowed for Mitchell – who was appointed a minister outside of cabinet in December – to shift into Cabinet with the defence role.
Speaking following his promotion, Mitchell said the phone call from English earlier yesterday came out of nowhere. ‘‘Literally the PM had not indicated anything. I had no idea they were going to trust me with defence. Defence is something I feel I can make a genuine contribution, because the stuff we’re dealing with off-shore I spent a decade in those countries, high con- flict zones, so I do understand some of the complexities we’re dealing with.’’
Greater Christchurch Regeneration associate minister Nicky Wagner – who is Christchurch Central’s MP – has been promoted to head the portfolio but remains outside of Cabinet.
The two newcomers outside of Cabinet are senior whip Tim Macindoe and local government and environment select committee chairman Scott Simpson.
Macindoe picks up minister for customs and associate minister for both education and transport. Simpson will look after statistics, previously held by Mitchell, and is associate for the environment and immigration, which was pre- viously held by David Bennett.
Bennett, who was promoted to a minister in December, has picked up Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy’s racing portfolio, which frees up Guy to take on Brownlee’s role in civil defence.
Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges replaces Brownlee as leader of the house.
Speculation that English may also be looking ahead to the election and a possible deal with NZ First and what that might mean for ministerial portfolios was dismissed yesterday. It was thought either NZ First leader Winston Peters or likely incoming MP Shane Jones could have dibs on the foreign affairs role postelection.
But English said he was appointing Brownlee and it’s ‘‘certainly my expectation if we win the election he’ll continue as foreign minister’’.
‘‘Gerry has built up a very significant set of relationships with our partners through his role as Defence Minister and done a good job of that in a relatively short amount of time. I think in Christchurch he’s shown the ability to be blunt when he needs to be but also diplomatic when he needs to be.’’
The only other portfolio affected in the reshuffle was housing.
Social Housing Minister Amy Adams remains responsible for Housing New Zealand and social and emergency housing but will pick up the Crown land pro- gramme, previously overseen by Building and Construction Minister Nick Smith.
Smith, who has been under sustained opposition attack for his handling of a range of portfolios, in particular housing, has had his job stripped back to overseeing building regulation. English denied Smith was being dumped.
Labour leader Andrew Little said the reshuffle didn’t signal any ‘‘change of direction or strategy’’ from the government. While his review of the promotions wasn’t overly positive, in a rare move, he was generous in his praise of Mitchell taking over the defence role. ‘‘Mark is definitely someone personally I can work with. Most Labour MPs find him affable.’’