Maharey to retire

Steve Maharey has announced he will both retire from Parliament at the next election, but also step down from Cabinet at the impending reshuffle.

This is a big event.  Not only is Maharey the highest ranked MP after the Leader and Deputy, he was probably the favourite to replace Clark as Leader.

He has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Massey University, which isn’t a bad job at all to go into. Not quite as good as Prime Minister though.

This means they now need to find replacements for both Education and Social Development – two of the largest portfolios.

It also dramatically increases the chance of Phil Goff of becoming Labour Leader. If Labour do lose the next election, and Clark stands down, then there is only a year for alternatives to Goff to impress. That’s assuming Mallard isn’t a contender, but he may now be a contender again if it is him vs Goff.