Luxon strips Simmonds and Lee of key portfolios
Melissa Lee has briefly responded to news of her demotion out of Cabinet, saying she supports Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s decision to strip her of her media portfolio.
“I support the prime minister’s decision. I look forward to continuing my work in the economic development and ethnic communities portfolios,” she said through a press secretary.
In a surprise announcement yesterday, afternoon Luxon said he had removed the media portfolio from an embattled Lee, who was under increasing pressure to respond to challenges in the sector after mass job cuts.
He instead installed Paul Goldsmith into the role.
In the surprise reshuffle, Penny Simmonds has also lost the disability issues portfolio to Louise Upston.
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will move inside of Cabinet, taking Lee’s position.
Luxon said he intended for Goldsmith, already holding the justice, arts, culture and heritage, state owned enterprises and Treaty of Waitangi negotiations portfolios, to work on the regulatory settings to enable media companies to adapt to a challenging media environment.
“I want to make sure I have senior ministers dealing with these issues.”
He said Lee was a hard-working minister and described his decision as about having the right ministers across the right portfolios. He said both the media and disability portfolios had become more complex since the ministers were installed in their portfolios.
“This is how I roll, this is how I lead,” Luxon said. “I’m just a person who will adapt very quickly and dynamically.”
He said he had been having ongoing conversations with all ministers about performance, and had a series of conversations with both Lee and Simmonds over the past month.
He also spoke to them this morning, and informed deputy PM Winston Peters and ACT leader David Seymour of the reshuffle. “This was my decision,” Luxon said. He acknowledged it was disappointing, especially in regards to Lee, and said she repeated that back to him. “It’s understandable. It’s a tough day in that regard.”
Goldsmith is travelling overseas and wasn’t immediately available. A spokesperson in his office said the minister will be meeting with media and communications officials as soon as possible.
Luxon was at pains to describe Lee as a hard-working minister, and wouldn’t pinpoint what had changed in terms of Lee’s ability to handle the portfolio – which she has held as a spokesperson during the National party’s time in opposition.
Lee had been under increasing pressure since February when Warner Bros Discovery announced its plans to cut Newshub.
Lee was criticised for her response to its demise, and had since refused to say where she was at with work in her portfolioto reform the struggling media sector.
While she repeatedly said she was busy at work on a paper to present to Cabinet, where the paper was at in the process was unclear, despite repeated questioning. Just a few weeks ago, Luxon denied he was planning to remove Lee from the portfolio.
Meanwhile, tensions had also risen over disability funding, after families were left shell-shocked, learning through social media about changes to funding relied on by parents and carers of disabled people.
Luxon said it had become clear in recent months “that there are significant challenges in the media sector”.
“Similarly, we have discovered major financial issues with programmes run by the Ministry of Disabled People.
“I have come to the view it is important to have senior Cabinet ministers considering these issues.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called on Louise Upston, in her new portfolio, to apologise to the disabled community for the comments Simmonds had made during her time as the responsible minister, which included suggestions that carers had taken advantage of funding to get massages, pedicures and travel.
“[The comments] have been unjustified, they have been totally unnecessary and caused a huge amount of anguish and hurt in the community,” said Hipkins. “The new minister would get off on a much better footing if she apologised for the actions of her predecessor.”
Hipkins said while Lee had been “bafflingly invisible” as news of job cuts at Newshub and TVNZ caused widespread industry concern, he claimed a proposal Lee was taking to Cabinet had been knocked back by Winston Peters.
Luxon said earlier that neither Peters, nor ACT leader David Seymour, had raised performance issues about Lee, with Luxon.