November 19, 2008 3:49pm by David Farrar

Ministry Demographics

Have been crunching some numbers on the new Key Ministry. I’m going to profile the entire Ministry of 28, the Cabinet of 20, and the Front Bench of nine.

Gender

The Ministry has eight female Minister, and 20 male Ministers, so just one female Minister less than the last Government. That’s 29% female. The Cabinet is similiar with 30% female and the front bench is 22% female.

Age

The average age of the Ministry is 51.6 years. The youngest Minister is 39 and the oldest is 67. Two Ministers are in their 30s, nine in their 40s, 13 in their 50s and four in their 60s.

For the Cabinet the average age is younger at 49.5. Only one Minister in Cabinet is in their 60s.

The front bench is younger still with an average age of 47.6, and an age range of 39 to 55.

Ethnicity

There are four Maori Ministers and one Asian Minister. Maori Ministers make up 14% of the Ministry – around the same as their share of the adult population.

Terms in Parliament

This is how many previous terms of Parliament there have been since they became an MP (2008 entrant = 0, 2005 = 1, 2002 =2 … 1987 = 7).

The average number of previous terms for the Ministry is 3.6. Steven Joyce has the least at zero previous terms and Peter Dunne the most at eight previous terms.

For the Cabinet, the average previous terms are 3.2 and for the front bench the average is 3.7. One three of the nine front benchers have been Ministers before.

Island

23 of the 28 Ministers reside in the North Island and the South Island has just five Ministers. However their 18% share gets better within the Cabinet only where they make up 25% of the Cabinet. And on the front bench the South Island has one third representation – greater than their population share.

Area

Auckland supplies a whopping 13 Ministers, so no more complaints about Wellington lecturing to Auckland when Auckland makes up 46% of the Ministry. They are also 45% of the Cabinet but 22% of the front bench.

Wellington and Christchurch get three Ministers each. Within Cabinet though Wellington drops to just one Minister – Chris Finlayson.

Provincial MPs make up five Ministers and Rural MPs four Ministers. That’ 32% of the Ministry from outside the big three cities. Within the Cabinet they make up 35% and on the front bench comprise 55%.

I’ll also do a profile of former occupations also at some stage, but may cheat and see if I can steal that from Saunders Unsworth who do an excellent summary of MPs former occupations as part of their book of profiles.

When Phil Goff announces his new line up, I’ll also profile them.