How has the Cabinet scored?

Jo Moir looks at which Cabinet ministers are up, down or invisible.

Analysis: Yesterday was six months to the day since the Labour/Greens/ NZ First Government was sworn in and, boy, have its members squeezed a lot in.

There’s been a few standout ministers grinding away on policy over that time and there’s been a few who have been near invisible.

So who is up and who is down in Cabinet six months into the job?

JACINDA ARDERN:

The prime minister has had a big start to the toughest gig in town. Her tenure started out with bouts of morning sickness to go with it and she’s had to work hard to keep both NZ First and the Greens happy while also managing her own party’s expectations.

Ardern has just come off the back of a highly successful international trip, which would have been a welcome relief after a few weeks of not-so-great headlines.

Overall, Ardern has done a good job in the first six months, and her profile appears to be relatively intact based on the most recent poll having her at 37 per cent for most preferred prime minister to National Party leader Simon Bridges’ 10 per cent.

The biggest area she’s failed to deliver is around child poverty. She really focused on it during the campaign and created the Child Poverty Reduction portfolio but that’s about where it stopped. 8/10

WINSTON PETERS: The deputy prime minister has a mixed scorecard. He has been received well on the international stage and NZ First has done a good job of ensuring the coalition holds together.

Let’s not forget back in October that people were predicting it would be a matter of weeks before things started to fall apart between Peters and the Greens.

He’s had a few questionable moments around his relentless support for Russia that forced Ardern to do a bit of cleanup. 7/10 GRANT ROBERTSON: It’s been a good six months for the finance minister. He’s beavering away getting his first Budget together, which will be the true test of how he’s doing. While Robertson has had to lower people’s expectations ahead of it, he’s done a good job of pressing the flesh with the business community and has, so far, escaped any unwanted headlines. 7/10 SHANE JONES: If he was being measured on headlines and sound bites, Jones would be well in the lead. The NZ First newcomer has had a lot of profile with his $1 billion Provincial Growth Fund and his plans to plant 1 billion tees.

Jones has been given a long lead by Peters to go a bit rogue on issues that the deputy prime minister can’t be seen to be meddling in.

His lashing out at Air New Zealand over its cutting of provincial flights went down a treat with regional New Zealand – even Ardern struggled to really tell him off when he suggested the airline’s chief executive should move on. 8/10

KELVIN DAVIS:

It hasn’t been a great six months for the deputy leader of the Labour Party. His stints as acting prime minister haven’t gone too well and he hasn’t really stamped his mark on the Corrections portfolio at this point. As for his other role, Crown/Ma¯ori Relations, the country is still waiting to hear what that entails. 2/10

CHRIS HIPKINS:

Things didn’t start so well for the education minister and leader of the House but he’s come into his own since the mix-up over whether the coalition had the numbers to get their desired Speaker, Trevor Mallard, across the line. His announcement to completely overhaul the Tomorrow’s Schools model is ambitious, and while still in its early stages, will be a real test for Hipkins. 7/10

ANDREW LITTLE: Got to be the best performing minister to date. Little has a lot of portfolios, which is indicative of how competent he is, and he has really hit the ground running. Compensation for Teina Pora in the early weeks, huge progress with Nga¯puhi leaders looking to settle with the Crown and that symbolic walk into the Pike River portal are just a few of the many things he’s ticked off. 9/10

DAVID PARKER:

Another minister with a big list of portfolios and one of few with prior ministerial experience. Parker had an early win getting the CPTPP signed and also pulled off a ban on foreign buyers purchasing existing homes - something National claimed couldn’t be done. 8/10

PHIL TWYFORD AND DAVID CLARK:

Both have big portfolios and their wins and losses are pretty evenly matched. Twyford has made some bold moves with transport – not all have been well received – but on housing it’s a bit of a slow grind. Clark has that difficult health portfolio that doesn’t win friends easily. He’s got a lot of work on his hands and has some serious questions to answer over issues at Middlemore Hospital. 5/10

MEGAN WOODS, IAIN LEESGALLOWAY, DAMIEN O’CONNOR AND STUART NASH:

All four ministers have their heads down and are getting the work done without causing too much of a stir. Woods and Nash have had a couple of bad headlines between them but nothing that’s really rocked the boat. 6/10

CLARE CURRAN: NANAIA MAHUTA, JENNY SALESA AND CARMEL SEPULONI:

The invisible trio. Mahuta has ministerial experience and has been around Parliament for a long time, Salesa has long been touted a future big performer and Sepuloni has a portfolio that could be making some real headlines for change but none of them have really been seen or heard. 3/10

The broadcasting minister has had a terrible run of late and looks to be struggling to bounce back from it. Time will tell whether she can hold on to her responsibilities. 1/10

RON MARK AND TRACEY MARTIN:

The NZ First ministers have had a pretty low profile, surprisingly so in the case of Martin who was expected to be doing big things with Ardern on the children portfolio. 5/10

JAMES SHAW AND JULIE-ANNE GENTER

: Both are outside of Cabinet but worth a mention. Shaw and Genter have had a solid start and have clocked up some big wins for the Greens in the first six months with rapid rail proposed for Auckland, a stop to the Crown irrigation scheme and, of course, the biggest win of all – the end of future oil and gas exploration permits. 7/10