Labour’s Shadow Cabinet
February 25th, 2013 at 1:39 pm by David FarrarLabour’s new lineup is here, according to their website:
- David Shearer – Science & Innovation
- Grant Robertson – Employment, Arts
- David Parker – Finance, Shadow Attorney-General
- Jacinda Ardern – Welfare, Children
- Clayton Cosgrove – SOEs, Commerce, Trade
- Annette King – Health
- Shane Jones – Regional Development, Foresty, Associate Finance
- Phil Twyford – Housing, Auckland
- Maryan Street – Environment
- Chris Hipkins – Education, Chief Whip
- Nanaia Mahuta – Youth, Maori Development
- David Clark – Economic Development, Small Business
- Sue Moroney – ACC, ECE, Women’s Affairs
- Su’a William Sio – Local Government, Pacific
- Phil Goff – Foreign Affairs, State Services, Defence
- Darien Fenton – Labour, Immigration, Junior Whip
- Damien O’Connor – Primary Industries, Food Safety
- Clare Curran – Comms/ICT, Open Govt
- Andrew Little – Justice, Tourism
- Megan Woods – Tertiary Education
The top 20 are generally considered the shadow cabinet. Cunliffe has been given a portfolio, but this indicate he will not be in the Government if Shearer wins. In fact only the top 14 or so might get to be in Cabinet as you need room for coalition partners.
The top eight sit on the front bench, so King, Jones and Twyford join the front bench and Sio, Mahuta and Street get demoted off it. That is a significant reshuffle for the front bench.
King is a very safe pair of hands, and may be the first Labour Health Spokesperson in four years to lay a blow on Ryall. Against that promoting someone who was a Minister in the 1980s onto the front bench in the 2010s doesn’t signal rejuvenation.
I’ve previously said that Jones and Twyford deserve promotions. I am surprised Hipkins didn’t go all the way onto the front bench though.
Robertson is put in charge of jobs. He is an effective politician but may struggle for credibility to talk about job creation when as far as I know his entire career has been in the public sector, and he has never actually worked in the private sector which actually creates the jobs (and funds the public sector).
David Clark is obviously well thought off to put him against Steven Joyce. He has worked in Treasury so understands economics (unlike most of his colleagues).
Tags: Labour
February 25th, 2013 at 1:41 pm
It’s already been dubbed the Retro Reshuffle. You have to feel for Shearer though; he doesn’t exactly have a plethora of talent to work with
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:44 pm
Poor old Trevor, can’t even make top 20 among that talent less mob
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:46 pm
He exposed the lack of depth in some of his economic knowledge last year.
He’s been given:
Spokesperson for Economic Development
Spokesperson for Small Business
Don’t know how much experience he has in those, I’m not aware of him working in small business. Interestingly his co-Dunedin MP (who Clark has leapfrogged in the rankings) is Associate Spokesperson for Economic Development.
12 on the bench is a rapid rise for Clark, he was 49 on Labour’s list in 2011.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:47 pm
Mallard is lining up a job as Speaker so ranking isn’t so important.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:49 pm
Oh yeah, a (Shadow) Minister for Children without any children herself.
Are we allowed to point out such truths yet or is that another verboetten utterance?
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:55 pm
As I look at that line up of talent the question going through my mind is “If you had to start a new political party from scratch with those as your candidates then would you really get past the 5% threshold?”.
Labour as a brand has a lot of inertia. Too many people tick the red Labour box because they always have, and because their parents always did.
But this mob of hacks and has beens is not adding any lustre to that brand. With this sort of talent at the helm Labour is in a death spiral.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Dead men – women walking
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Redbaiter, being a solo mother is not a prerequisite for leading Work and Income or being their Minister.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
I guess that no-one in the top 20 has been allocated Transport means they have already surrendered that to Julie Anne Genter and the Greens.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
Obviously Cunliffe should be talking to United about standing in Ohariu or number 2 on the list.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Clare Curran is spokesperson for ‘Open Government’. Really.
Vote:Am I the only person to see that this is ridiculous?
A reminder: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10476387
February 25th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
Jacinda Ardern – Welfare, Children
Nanaia Mahuta – Youth, Maori Development
Im worried there will be a grey area and the tweens will miss out FFS
Maori Development – pity there isnt PI development, Asian development etc etc or we just call it.. wait for it.. development.
Andrew Little – Justice, Tourism – if Little can do the tourism ads, overseas people will flock here.
only 7 chicks?
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:12 pm
The
Vote:ShadowShallow Cabinet.February 25th, 2013 at 2:15 pm
But Redbaiter, according to the SST she is the best looking MP!!!!
Vote:Nothing to see here and John Key can sleep easy.
February 25th, 2013 at 2:17 pm
It truly is a shocking lineup, but you can only play the cards you’re dealt and Phil Goff’s failure to get sufficient new blood in during his time as leader and make a clean break from the Clark years is holding them back.
The truly frightening thing is this lot which a bunch of greens added have an even money shout of being in power in 18 months.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:25 pm
Goff still front row…..friends in high places…namely UN I should think.
Sue Moroney sneaking up. Loud, ambitious and brash enough to become future leader
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:25 pm
Annette King is 65 years old and first entered CABINET in the 1980′s
This is Annette taking one for the Labour team as a final thank you for decades at the trough. Nobody has laid a glove on Tony Ryall in four years, I do not see that changing.
Quite what experience a middle class farm girl from the Waikato with no private sector paid employment or children brings to her portfolio responsibilities is a complete mystery. Ardern must simply be the acceptable face of Labour. What an irony for a party that was run by an extreme feminist for most of the last two decades has fallen to promoting a woman based solely on the fact she is not ugly.
Vote:The only winner in this is Mallard, more time for cycling and romance and he can take a break from being blamed for everything.
February 25th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
And lets not forget Mr Blobby. Employment???? Far out, playing Baldrick to H2, eating and sucking on the public tit gets you the employment portfolio.
Vote:A man who irons his shirt with a wok will never be PM again in this country.
February 25th, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Correct BB; King and Mallard both entered Parliament in 1984, got turfed in the Bolger landslide of 1990, and returned in 1993. If Annette King is the future of the Labour Party, then the Labour Party is in deep shit.
The only longer serving MP’s now than Mallard and King are Winston Peters and Phil Goff.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
What does Little understand about a justice portfolio? And tourism! I would have thought that some semblance of charisma would be an essential ingrediant for tourism. Wonder how he will deal with the Hollywood moguls when he tries to get some free publicity?
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Theyre hiding lefty lightweight Darien Fenton. She got Labour, but she doesn’t seem to know if wages are rising or not.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:36 pm
David Clark for Economic Development & Small Business? Then I hope his first task will be to learn the difference between revenue and profit.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:37 pm
You think that after all these years in Parliament, Mallard doesn’t care where he is ranked? There’s a Tui billboard right there.
He’ll be smarting behind the customary Mallard smirk. He can talk about about a glorious future as Speaker all he likes. He knows this is a right spanking from Shearer for his abject failure on strategy.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:41 pm
The resuscitation of Annette King is quite interesting. Hardly rejuvenation. Labour will be hoping she can get some runs against Tony Ryall. I always felt she was overrated. Smart politically but not all that bright.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
“But Redbaiter, according to the SST she is the best looking MP!!!!”
They were just channeling Helen Klark.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
All new for 2014: A new rearrangement of the same people you didn’t vote for in 2011.
Vote Labour!
Own Our Future!
etc..
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
By dropping Housing down the ranking and giving it to Twyford it looks like Labour have condemned their affordable housing policy.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 2:59 pm
All new for 2014: A new rearrangement of the same people you didn’t vote for in 2011.
Well they do campaign on saving ‘assets’…
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:07 pm
This is a great line up. With Aunty King in the front bench, Shearer has rejuvenated his line up. Lots of talent and this is a government in waiting. John Key must be shaking in fear now. Shearer looks like a clear winner in 2014. Shearer is telling Kiwi public that Aunty is the future. I can’t wait for the Labour-Green-NZ First-Mana combination to come into power in 2014 and ruin this country economically. Then only people will wake up.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:07 pm
Looks Wonderful – long may it reign
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:27 pm
Brilliant, let’s bring back all the same people that got us voted out the last time!!
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:38 pm
Lianne Dalziel: Christchurch mayoralty here I come
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Background:
- Presbyterian minister
- marriage celebrant (he was Grant Robertson’s celebrant)
- Treasury analyst 2003-2006
- Advisor to Hon David Parker 2006 – 2007
- warden of Selwyn College
A big job ahead of him.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:56 pm
tvb said
IIRC, Annette King was given instructions to take down Paula Bennett when Bennett was given the Social Development portfolio. That Jacinda Ardern took over from her suggests that Mrs King failed miserably. Now she is up against Tony Ryall, who has probably been National’s best-performing minister since 2008. I doubt that Ryall will toss and turn all night tonight.
And as an aside, King may turn out to be the wrong choice for Health for another reason. It was the whistle being blown on some dodgy contracting processes (and her husband Ray Lind’s connection with Peter Hausmann) which led to David Cunliffe sacking the democratically elected Hawke’s Bay District Health Board in early 2008. Labour took a huge hit over Baygate, and the Napier electorate went from a safe Labour seat for many years to a win for National in 2008, and a majority of almost 4000 for Chris Tremain in 2011.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Toad>I guess that no-one in the top 20 has been allocated Transport means they have already surrendered that to Julie Anne Genter and the Greens.
No, it means they don’t think transport is important enough to appoint a spokesperson. They’ve surrendered to Gerry Brownlee.
Who was Labour’s previous transport spokesperson? I’m struggling to remember, so it doesn’t seem they made any impact. It wasn’t Bicycling Trev by any chance? He seems to spend most of his time on NZ’s roads.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
How come Iain Lees-Galloway can’t catch a break? He seems like a pretty competent guy.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Well, i would have thought Shearer would keep Silent T close to him
like Klark did with Kullen. Bloody shame really, he seems the one
with any brains in the Liarbore party. They can kiss 2014 goodbye !!
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 4:10 pm
PARKER is party spokeman on Finance but Shadow Attorney General. Sure looks like NORMAN has been promised Finance.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
best outcome National could have hoped for.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
Cato said
You’ve answered your own question Cato. Competency counts for nowt.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 4:45 pm
Bouncing back…
Mallard and Dalziel are blowouts, Cunliffe remains deflated.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 5:14 pm
Coming in at #21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Defibrillator_Monitor.jpg
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Perhaps there’s less to him than meets the eye…
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Cosgrove, failed candidate at the last election (lost to Wilkinson I think) is their number 5 .. REALLY?
Vote:I know the cupboard is bare but bloody hell.
And Moroney at 13, wow
February 25th, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Some will be pleased at the resurgence of Damien O’Connor under Shearer though. Unwanted by Goff’s team and only saved by retaking the West Coast, he is now half way up the pack at #17
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 5:47 pm
What would this childless spinster know about children?
Anyway she seems more interested in corrupting them into believing that sexual deviancy is normal.
Fifty years ago it was the raincoat brigade that parents had to beware, now it is policians who are intent on leading them astray
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 6:42 pm
God what a desperate sorry shambles. It really is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic
Dog tucker. That’s not an opposition
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 8:56 pm
The standard is buzzing like a bee hive since the reshuffle. Shit they really do not like Shearer and co and heading off to the greens. I could not imagine National supporters dumping on John Key in this way.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 9:12 pm
RF, last election Key was 1 on the National list.
In comparison Shearer was 31 for Labour, one below Chris Hipkins. The only current MPs below Shearer were:
31. David Shearer
33. Phil Twyford
37. Iain Lees-Galloway
41. Kris Faafoi
45. Rino Tirikatene
47. Megan Woods
49. David Clark
That would be sort of comparable to one of these MPs becoming National leader:
30. Simon Bridges
31. Michael Woodhouse
32. Chester Borrows
33. Nikki Kaye
34. Melissa Lee
Shearer has less parliamentary experience than all of them.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 9:51 pm
Shearer chose the tired old hacks because they are on avergae more competent and less nutty than the newer people. It simply reflects the steady decline in the quality of candidates selected – driven in turn by Labour’s crusade for ideological purity and distrust of moderates.
Vote:February 25th, 2013 at 10:02 pm
duggledog – As crap as this lineup looks, and it’s a sorry, sorry list, it only takes a bunch of equally hopeless, leftist/selfist successful candidates from other parties to have sufficient seats for a coalition government to be formed. Hooorah for MMP
Vote:February 26th, 2013 at 12:14 am
If you feel that strongly about it, you can do something about it. Ask her out.
Vote:February 26th, 2013 at 6:06 am
@PeterDunneMP
Vote:February 26th, 2013 at 6:32 am
The whorish Dunne might need to eat his words after the next election!
Vote: