Wellington: On Monday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled her new cabinet, which will new portfolios for the nation’s economic recovery and continuing COVID-19 response.
Xinhua news office cited Ardern as saying at a press conference, “The next three years will be very challenging for New Zealand. With the global outlook worsening we won’t be immune to the ongoing impact Covid-19 is having around the world.”
The Prime Minister included, “With this in mind the new Labor government will have two overarching priorities: to drive our economic recovery from COVID-19, and to continue our health response to keep New Zealanders safe from the virus.”
Grant Robertson will be the Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, and Infrastructure Minister, drawing together the key portfolios central to that of economic recovery, as per Ardern.
The incumbent Health Minister Chris Hipkins has been provided with the COVID-19 response portfolio.
The premier stated that this New Cabinet which will give the Minister the responsibility regarding all parts of the ongoing response, including the running of managed quarantine facilities, border defenses just as health response including testing and contact tracing systems and dealing with any resurgence of the infection.
Andrew Little will be the Minister of Health, driving late reforms of the system pointed toward improving health results for every single New Zealander, she stated.
Nanaia Mahuta will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the first woman in New Zealand’s history assigned to the post. She has been a part of the parliament for twenty years.
Priyanka Radhakrishnan becomes the first-ever Indian to be assigned as a Minister in New Zealand.
The 41-year-old has been assigned as the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector.
Radhakrishnan was born in Chennai and raised in Singapore and has her roots at Paravur, Kochi, where her grandfather was a medical expert as well as a Communist.
A two-time MP from Auckland, she came to New Zealand to seek after her higher studies, following which she a Kiwi public hailing from Christchurch and since 2004 she has been involved in active politics with the Labor Party.
Monday’s New Cabinet line-up comes after Ardern acquired a second term in the wake of winning a landslide majority in the October 17 general election.
Her Labor Party won 49 percent of the vote, which moves to 64 seats in the 120-part Parliament in a Mixed-Member Proportional voting system, with the opposition National Party, led by Judith Collins, fell behind at 27 percent, or 35 seats.
Official results of the elections will be delivered on November 6.
The government made a NZ$50bn COVID-19 response and recovery fund focused at new actions intended to address both the prompt response to the pandemic and the more longer-term economic damage left afterwards.
New Zealand’s response– to go hard and quick on lockdowns – has been for the most part praised around the world, more so as new lockdowns are being declared in Britain and Europe.
Four new COVID-19 cases – all in managed quarantine– were reported today. The last case in the community was 10 days prior, on 23 October.
New Zealand has 77 ongoing cases. Its complete number of cases is 1603 including 25 deaths.
