“The Prime Minister’s major reshuffle of Cabinet has shuffled the deck chairs but the underlying problem is a lack of talent and good policy,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“ACT welcomes the departure of Poto Williams as Police Minister, but the choice of Chris Hipkins shows the lack of talent within Labour’s Caucus. This is the second time Hipkins has been wheeled out to save a flailing Minister, first David Clark, now Poto Williams.
“They have no reserve bench, just Chris Hipkins the super sub.
“Retaining Nanaia Mahuta in her roles shows a lack of leadership. She is clearly too distracted by her unpopular and anti-democratic Three Waters programme to focus on New Zealand’s role in a dramatically changing geopolitical environment. The Prime Minister should have shown she values New Zealand’s global reputation by freeing up the Minister to work on that, and that she listens to New Zealanders who are overwhelmingly against Three Waters.
“The asleep at the wheel Kris Faafoi has finally been relieved off his duties as Minister. The only people more excited than Kris will be people overseas and their families hoping that Michael Wood can somehow fix the immigration department that has been so completely Faafed under the previous Minister.
“Kiri Allan as Justice Minister now has an opportunity to stomp out divisive hate speech laws and bring back Three Strikes legislation. While as the owner of a radio station new Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson will need to make sure his conflicts of interest are all handled.
“Sadly this reshuffle shows no awareness of the problems occurring under this Government, or any ambition to turn things around.
“Those who rely on working to pay rising bills need hope, this Government isn’t giving it to them. Under Labour, the gap between the median wage in New Zealand and Australia has grown $6,600 – and there appears to be no strategy to make things better.
“This reshuffle amounts to business as usual for Labour, unfortunately that means Kiwis are taking their business elsewhere.”