What Luxon means by ‘this is how I roll’
The prime minister’s demotion of two ministers has sent a clear and decisive message to his caucus – that it won’t take a scandal or serious wrongdoing to be sent to the backbenches.
The appearance of ineffectiveness or mediocrity will be enough to be given the heave-ho.
That’s just how Christopher Luxon rolls.
The other message, or at least the one he wants to be sending, is that Luxon is taking delivery seriously; that it’s productivity or bust in this corporate-styled National-led Government.
While his announcement yesterday that he was shuffling Melissa Lee out of her media portfolio and ejecting her from Cabinet while also stripping the disability portfolio from Penny Simmonds was a surprise – it shouldn’t have been. Because neither minister was performing.
Lee appeared largely clueless about the media while Simmonds was notable only for her savage comments about disability carers.
The surprise was in the swiftness
– six months in, just as the wheels are starting to spin. Luxon couldn’t then realistically inject that “time for a change” energy into his address that John Key did when he sent Kate Wilkinson and Phil Heatley to the backbenches in 2013.
Luxon, though, refused to admit he thought Lee and Simmonds had done a bad job, only reiterating that complex portfolios needed senior ministers.
Luxon was also less smiling assassin in his clumsy corporate-speak he’s now notorious for. “This is how I roll, this is how I lead” is not particularly prime ministerial, more what the sneaker-wearing CEOs volley around the boardroom.
The question now is what becomes of the media portfolio, for an already laden Paul Goldsmith who is also juggling justice, state-owned enterprises, Waitangi Tribunal claims, and arts, culture and heritage.
Luxon said the latter would sit nicely with media, but the two are certainly distinct, and as Luxon highlighted, the industry is facing complex challenges.
Goldsmith will almost certainly be starting at ground zero and we may never know what Lee actually had planned, if anything.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for Goldsmith’s office said he intended to meet with media as soon as possible – it was the small hours of the morning in the UK, where he is meeting justice and arts officials, when the reshuffle was announced.
What’s for certain is the other message inherent in Luxon’s reshuffle – that the portfolio can’t be left to languish.