National MP Amy Adams appears to have reconsidered her retirement from politics now that Todd Muller is leader.
Muller has pulled her up to third on the party’s list, behind Nikki Kaye, giving her the newly created role of ‘COVID-19 recovery’ spokesperson.
Adams - a former senior Cabinet ministe - in June 2019 announced her retirement from politics at the 2020 election. While she stayed on as the MP for Selwyn, she stepped down from her finance and shadow attorney general roles.
Adams unsuccessfully ran in the party’s leadership race after Bill English retired.
Muller placed ousted National leader, Simon Bridges, at the bottom of the list, but said there would be a place for him in Cabinet should he decide to stay in politics. Muller said Bridges needed time to reflect on this future.
Bridges responded via text message: "I am not considering my future. Just having a small amount of time out to take stock after the loss on Friday.
"I am the candidate for Tauranga and intend to stand and help National obtain an historic win. Happy to be on the back benches for a while and be a good local MP."
The party’s former deputy leader, Paula Bennett, has been dropped to 13th on the list, losing her social investment and social services role to Louise Upston. Bennett will no longer be the party's campaign chair ahead of the September 19 election, with this job being given to Gerry Brownlee.
Paul Goldsmith remains finance spokesperson, but has fallen from third to fifth, losing his infrastructure role to Chris Bishop and state-owned enterprises role to Andrew Bayly.
Judith Collins remains at four, but has had her housing and urban development and RMA reform portfolios replaced as she’s become the spokesperson for economic development, regional development, shadow attorney-general and Pike River re-entry.
A key Muller supporter, Nicola Willis, has been given the high-profile role of housing and urban development, and been bumped up from 45th to 14th on the list.
Meanwhile, Bishop - another vocal “Team Muller” member - has jumped from 15th to 12th. He has key portfolios, transport and infrastructure.
Brownlee has gone up a few places to sixth, and is followed by Michael Woodhouse, who’s also been given a slight boost to seventh. He will remain National’s health spokesperson.
Bridges supporter, Todd McClay, has fallen from fifth to 11th on the list. Meanwhile Mark Mitchell has been pushed down from sixth to ninth.
Bayly has jumped from 32nd to 19th, getting portfolios of associate finance, revenue, commerce and state-owned enterprises.
See the full list here.
49 Comments
Missed opportunity. Also very interesting from this Stuff report;
Stuff understands Muller offered Bridges the Justice portfolio, but Bridges turned it down and asked for Foreign Affairs instead - which Muller declined to give him.
Of course, Simon had that truly unbelievable pro-CCP PR trip organised by Jian Yang last year. No doubt he wanted to keep up those connections;
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118419927/national-mp-jian-ya…
Gerry Brownlee maintains Foreign Affairs.
Define 'objective'.
Do you mean, with reference to (damn lies and) statistics? Perhaps, operational logic? Or that old chestnut, valid only through verification of exactly the same conditions? Or, since you're talking journalism, the idea that objective journalism arises from presenting an opposite position to a stated view? This last one has long been discredited in media theory, as binary pairs almost always have a preferred reading for one position. This is also known as agenda setting.
Objectivity, is unfortunately, highly debateable.
Could be expanded to full tobacco sponsorhip of Government Ministers.
They could all wear race type suits with all the different tobacco brands.Muller could swap out his MAGA cap for a Marlboro one.
Ashley Bloomfield could light a fag up during his presentaions.
Imagine,no other country is allowing tobacco sponsorship,we would be global leaders,the billions would flow in.
Extend it to alcohol and we will be back in surplus before we know it.
Unfortunately, I think Adams and Kaye (esp Adams) are going to struggle to keep their political egos in check. They have held top cabinet positions before.
Muller sounds like less actual businessman and more lobbyist to Govt for business.
At last Hoots is off the pundit spots.
She carries the baggage of removal of democracy from Cantabrians.
It might have gone down well in Fonterra circles, but it was anything but honest. Only Collins carries worse baggage.
But the question, as always, is: Are they future-appropriate? And the answer is
NO.
Hard to argue against Muller saying there are three heavy lifters in Labour and the rest are baggage.
Ardern, Little and Faafoi..... some might suggest Robertson should be included... but Treasury and the RBNZ are a complete shambles.. on his watch.
But you couldn't rank the performance of any of the others above 3/10: Curran, Hipkins, Davis, Twyford, Woods, Nash, Clark, Parker, Lees-Galloway
Has anyone actually found Kelvin Davis or David Parker yet? They have been missing for 2.5 years.
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