Labour’s reshuffle
Phil Goff has announced some changes to Caucus following the departures of Clark and Cullen:
- Chris Carter takes Foreign Affairs off Clark
- Mallard takes Education off Carter and moves to front bench, plus gets Rugby World Cup and America’s Cup
- Shane Jones picks up Economic Development off Mallard and Environment off Mahuta
- Nanaia Mahuta is demoted off the front bench and takes up Maori social development
- Maryan Street picks up Treaty Negotiations off Cullen
- Darren Hughes picks up Shadow Leader of the House off Cullen
- David Parker picks up Conversation off Chadwick
- Charles Chauvel picks up Associate Justice
- Winnie Laban gets Interfaith Dialogue
- Steve Chadwick gets Arts Culture and Heritage off Clark
- George Hawkins gets Local Government off Jones
- Damien O’Connor gets Rural Affairs off Mackey, Biosecurity off Davis and Associate Agriculture
- Ashraf Choudary gets Associate Research, Science and Development
- Kelvin Davis gets Tourism off Mahuta and Associate Maori Affairs
- Chris Hipkins gets Sport & Recreation off Mallard
- Mackey picks op Housing off Hawkins
The big winner is Trevor Mallard who moves to the front bench and also Shane Jones who gets more substance. No one big loser but Mahuta is demoted, Carter moves to a role where he will see little action and Grant Robertson misses out on getting any of the two portfolios he was understudy to Clark for.
I must say though it is a bit weird to do it during the by-election. If Shearer wins, then they will need another reshuffle.
The other strange thing is how many changes were made just six months after the initial allocation. This is actually a fairly major reshuffle, which suggests the initial allocations had proved unsatisfactory.