The political year in Aotearoa New Zealand has begun with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon having a Cabinet reshuffle of sorts. After a year full of brazen “economy and landlords first” trumpeting from the Government, 2025 begins with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet having to acknowledge the poor polling even by usually sympathetic pollsters (in this case the Curia poll).
Shane Reti was the major casualty, with his demotion from being Minister of Health. His demotion was pounced on by Labour’s Dr Ayesha Verrall, who said that he had been set up to fail by his Government. He was not the only one demoted, though with Melissa Lee leaving Cabinet altogether.
The winners were Simeon Brown, who picks up the Health portfolio, Mark Mitchell who adds the Ethnic Communities portfolio that Melissa Lee used to hold and a new comer named James Meager. Mr Meager picks up the Hunting and Fishing portfolio, Youth and also the newly created Minister for South Island. Due to the size and complexity of the Health portfolio, Mr Brown relinquishes his other Ministerial portfolios in Energy, Local Government (both to new comer Simon Watts) and Transport (Chris Bishop)
However it was not all bad news for Mr Reti, who is picking up responsibility for Universities and science..
National will undoubtedly see this as a rejuvenation of a Cabinet that has been anything but unifying from the perspectives of a lot of people. Their near single minded “economy first, everything else second, third…” approach to running New Zealand shows that they very much view New Zealanders as a people as economic units of production. As long as New Zealanders are contributing to the economy the bean counters are happy.
Except that the Government is making many New Zealanders, who have suffered through the deliberately short sighted politics of the last 12 months, disillusioned and unhappy. In the Sunday Star Times yesterday were two articles that were not exactly glittering in their praise of National. One was an editorial by Tracy Watkins. Ms Watkins noted how the “she’ll be right” attitude of New Zealanders to infrastructure and other matters of the 20 years was no longer working and the frequent breakdowns of key parts, such as the ferries is one of the consequences. The other was an article that noted the dire need for National to deliver in 2025.
In a year that might be marked as much by external turmoil (Trump, poor international outlook) as well as internal turmoil (Treaty Principles Bill, socio-economic pain), it could be a rocky ride for a coalition that very much needs to lift its game. If Christopher Luxon is to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first ever one-term National Prime Minister, 2025 could be the year that makes or breaks him.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 