Luxon's reshuffle: New campaign chair coy on whether he asked for the job, Pacific Peoples Minister says Auckland roots qualify him for the role

Thursday, 2 April 2026

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has reshuffled his ministerial line-up as the National Party prepares for the departure of two senior ministers.

The new line-up brings some fresh blood into the response to the fuel crisis brought on by the conflict in the Middle East.

It also brings a new campaign chair for the National Party in the form of Simeon Brown. That role was previously held by Chris Bishop, who also chaired the party’s 2023 campaign.

Luxon insisted the change was due to Bishop having an untenable workload, not a demotion. Bishop also picked up the role of Attorney-General on Thursday, but lost Leader of the House.

'RMA reform, quite simply, is the single most important economic reform of this Government and will require significant attention in the coming months,' Luxon said. 'I want to make sure he's able to focus on that.'

Stuff spoke to Bishop after the changes were announced about whether he was disappointed.

“I serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. He's made his call on that, and I'm just gonna do the jobs that I've got to the best of my ability,” he responded.

When Brown was questioned on whether he asked for the role of campaign chair, he remained coy.

“The Prime Minister and I have many conversations. He has offered me this role,” he said. “In my entire time as a member of Parliament when a leader of the party calls you and offers you a role, I have said yes.”

After being asked several more times whether he expressed an interest in the role, Brown did not say no.

“I have a focus on winning elections. I am focused on winning this election, and I don’t go into detail of the conversations I have with the Prime Minister,” he said.

He said he has not spoken to Bishop about the shift in responsibilities.

Meanwhile Paul Goldsmith, the new Minister for Pacific Peoples, told reporters his Auckland roots qualify him for the job.

“I’m an Aucklander born and bred, the greatest Pacific city in the world. …Part of what makes this a great country is the mix of Māori, Pasifika and recent migrants,” he said when asked what he could bring to the job.

That came after Luxon laughed at a question about Goldsmith’s suitability earlier in the day.

“He’s got Minister for Culture and Heritage, which is adjacent to that,” he said, before “freely admitting” the National Party and Cabinet don’t have a Pacific person to appoint.

'That's something that we're working very hard on. As I've said to you before, we need to make sure we continue to work as we go into 2026 on the campaign, on getting great candidates.“

Luxon said he does not think the National Party has a diversity problem.

The reshuffle’s winners

The big winners in this Cabinet reshuffle include Brown, Chris Penk and Penny Simmonds.

In addition to taking campaign chair, Brown - who is already Minister for Health and Minister for State Owned Enterprises - has taken over the Energy portfolio. This is a hugely important one in the context of the global fuel crisis.

The portfolio has been taken off Simon Watts, who has been largely absent from the crisis response with Resources Minister (and NZ First MP) Shane Jones leading that side of things. Watts has taken over Brown’s Auckland portfolio in a straight swap.

Speaking before Question Time, Watts said he is happy to hand the reins back to Brown.

“Minister Brown and I are very close, we talk regularly on a range of portfolio issues. The reality is that he handed over the portfolio to me, I’ve worked through it … and now I’m handing it back to him. We have a very good relationship and work very well together,” he said.

The other major winner is Penk. Previously a minister outside Cabinet with the Building and Construction, Land Information, Small Business and Veterans portfolios, Penk has now been promoted to sit inside the room.

He takes over Defence, Space and the spy agencies from the retiring Collins, and retains Building and Construction, Veterans and Associate Minister for Emergency Management - a role he was given after the Mount Maunganui landslides.

This is a big step up in responsibility for Penk, but Luxon said he was confident in his abilities.

“Defence is a large operational portfolio, not dissimilar to police. You need good, visible upfront leaders out on the front line,” he said.

“Chris, as Associate Minister, has worked very closely with Judith. … The fact that he comes from a military background, obviously a naval background, he understands that role very well. And between Defense and Veterans, obviously the GCSB and SIS … there's a natural grouping of those activities coming together that way.”

Penny Simmonds also moves into Cabinet, but loses the environment portfolio. Environment goes to Nicola Grigg, who remains outside Cabinet.

Simmonds picks up the science portfolio, left open by Reti, and is also Minister for Tertiary Education. That appears to be a re-combination or her former vocational education role and Reti’s universities portfolio.

Luxon said Simmonds has worked “really hard on the polytechnic and the Te Pukenga mess” within tight budget constraints, making the progression “natural”.

“She's done an exceptional job working through a complex mess in fixing that up. It makes sense with Shane retiring, that actually the universities gets added into that - so we now have a tertiary education portfolio again, rather than having a split,” he said.

The reshuffle’s losers

Chris Bishop has had a massive ministerial portfolio all term - leading the Government’s RMA reform, as well as taking charge on housing, transport and infrastructure.

As outlined above, he has held onto those portfolios but loses Leader of the House (to Louise Upston) and his role as the party’s campaign chair. He also picks up Attorney-General.

He also loses Associate Minister of Sport - that has disappeared. When asked about it, Luxon said he didn’t think it was justified.

“Chris Bishop will be able to get cricket tickets, he’ll be all right,” he said.

Asked if that was a suggestion that Bishop didn’t do anything in the portfolio other than go to cricket matches, Luxon told reporters they were overthinking it.

The other loser is James Meager - who many had tipped as a likely candidate for promotion.

Meager remains outside cabinet in the reshuffle, with no changes to his portfolios.

Luxon dodged all of reporters’ questions on Meager at his post-announcement press conference.

The reshuffle’s newbies

The reshuffle brings two new ministers into the fold - with Cameron Brewer and Mike Butterick appointed ministers outside Cabinet.

Brewer takes Commerce and Consumer Affairs from Scott Simpson (who remains outside Cabinet, but takes over Statistics from Reti) and picks up Small Business and Manufacturing from Penk and Associate Minister of Immigration. Butterick takes Penk’s Land Information portfolio and Associate Minister of Agriculture.

Luxon said he has lots of faith in both of them.

“Cameron Brewer has done an outstanding job as select committee chair for the [Finance and Expenditure] committee. That's obviously a very significant select committee in Parliament,” he said. “Mike Butterick, he's an outstanding member of our team. He's the leader of what we call our rural nets, obviously.”

The changes will come into effect on Tuesday, April 7.

The full list of National ministers

Christopher Luxon

Prime Minister

Minister for National Security and Intelligence

Nicola Willis

Minister of Finance

Minister for Economic Growth

Minister for Social Investment

Chris Bishop

Attorney-General

Minister of Housing

Minister for Infrastructure

Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Minister of Transport

Associate Minister of Finance

Simeon Brown

Minister of Health

Minister for Energy

Minister for State Owned Enterprises

Minister Responsible for Ministerial Services

Erica Stanford

Minister of Education

Minister of Immigration

Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal

Commission’s Report into Historical Abuse in State Care, and in the Care

of Faith-based Institutions

Paul Goldsmith

Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage

Minister of Justice

Minister for Media and Communications

Minister for the Public Service and Digitising Government

Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations

Minister for Pacific Peoples

Louise Upston

Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector

Minister for Disability Issues

Minister for Social Development and Employment

Minister for Tourism and Hospitality

Leader of the House

Minister for Child Poverty Reduction

Mark Mitchell

Minister of Police

Minister of Corrections

Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery

Minister for Ethnic Communities

Minister for Sport and Recreation

Associate Minister for National

Security and Intelligence

Todd McClay

Minister of Agriculture 4

Minister of Forestry

Minister for Trade and Investment

Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs

Tama Potaka

Minister of Conservation 4

Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti

Minister for Māori Development

Minister for Whānau Ora

Associate Minister of Housing

Matt Doocey

Minister for Mental Health Associate Minister of Health

Simon Watts

Minister of Climate Change

Minister of Local Government

Minister of Revenue

Minister for Auckland

Chris Penk

Minister of Defence

Minister for Building and Construction

Minister for Veterans

Minister Responsible for the GCSB and NZSIS

Minister for Space

Associate Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery

Penny Simmonds

Minister for Tertiary Education

Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology

Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment

Nicola Grigg (outside Cabinet)

Minister for the Environment

Minister of State for Trade and Investment

Minister for Women Associate Minister for ACC

James Meager (outside Cabinet)

Minister for Hunting and Fishing

Minister for Youth

Minister for the South Island

Associate Minister of Transport

Scott Simpson (outside Cabinet)

Minister for ACC

Minister of Statistics

Deputy Leader of the House

Cameron Brewer (outside Cabinet)

Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs

Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing

Associate Minister of Immigration

Mike Butterick (outside Cabinet)

Minister for Land Information

Associate Minister of Agriculture