‘Work to do’ on caucus diversity

The National Party has ‘‘got work to do’’ to better its ethnic diversity and gender representation, new leader Christopher Luxon says, following his caucus reshuffle.

Only two Māori and four women now sit on its 12-member front bench, while not a single MP in the 33-member caucus is of Pasifika descent. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who Luxon will face for the first time as National’s new leader today, leads one of the most diverse caucuses in history.

‘‘As I have said before, I think there’s a lot more that we could be doing on building more diversity as a National Party, and being upfront on that,’’ he said after he announced the reshuffle in Parliament yesterday.

Deputy Nicola Willis, Louise Upston, Erica Stanford and Barbara Kuriger made the top 12. Overall, 11 in the caucus – a third – are women including Melissa Lee, who is the only person of Asian descent.

Luxon said the party had a more diverse candidate list but its ‘‘terrible’’ election result saw fewer National candidates enter Parliament.

But he agreed it needed to create a better candidate selection process to ensure it had more non-Pā kehā MPs.

‘‘I think we could come at it and cut it a lot of different ways around gender, Māori and regional dispersal and those sorts of things,’’ he said.

‘‘We are going to build a more robust party. We are going to take our centre-right politics and principles into every community and we have got to do a lot of work on that.’’

Dr Shane Reti (Ngati Wai, Te Kapotai, Nga Puhuhu nui tonu, Ngati Maniapoto) ranked fifth, will take over the Pacific peoples portfolio.

Luxon said the party ‘‘didn’t have the connection with the Pasifika community that I want to have’’ but Reti had a ‘‘huge standing’’ with those communities.

Overall, 11 in the caucus – a third – are women including Melissa Lee, who is the only person of Asian descent.

‘‘When having spoken with people in the communities, they feel that he is a great representative of the National Party,’’ he said.

‘‘Shane has a huge standing, he’s got great mana and he’s a very dignified individual and he connects well with the Pasifika community.’’

Luxon said he had improved diversity in businesses in the past and could do so for the party.

‘‘Having built organisations that have gone from being nondiverse and ended up being highly diverse, it is quite possible,’’ he said.

‘‘I want to see diversity become a stronger piece of the National Party.’’