Christopher Luxon’s long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle coming on Thursday
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
The Government’s long-anticipated reshuffle will happen on Thursday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s office has confirmed.
A reshuffle has been expected since Judith Collins announced in January that she would be leaving politics to serve as the head of the Law Commission.
Since then Luxon and Collins have both refused to put a date on her exit as minister, leading to some frustration within the party.
Pacific Peoples Minister Shane Reti has also announced he will stand down at the election.
MPs have repeatedly said they didn’t know when the reshuffle would be, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying as recently as Tuesday afternoon that he wasn’t sure.
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In early March, Luxon said the reshuffle would happen in “due course - but until then I’ve got nothing else to say about it”.
Collins holds the portfolios of Defence, Attorney General, Public Service, Digitising Government, Space, and both of the security agencies.
Distributing her portfolios will likely result in a wider reshuffle of roles and will open up a new space for a National MP in Cabinet.
Associate Defence Minister Chris Penk, a minister outside of Cabinet, is widely expected to enter the Cabinet.
If Luxon wishes to boost South Island representation, Youth Minister James Meager is another option - and could even replace the only South Island Cabinet minister, Mental Health minister Matt Doocey.
Luxon only has the power to control the 14 seats National holds in the 20-person Cabinet, with ACT and NZ First both entitled to three Cabinet ministers each.
The reshuffle comes after Luxon held a meeting with Auckland MPs on Sunday night.
Ministers were tight-lipped on what happened in that meeting, with Education Minister Erica Stanford saying there was no “to do” about it.
“I don’t talk about what happens in our senior ministers’ meetings, as you would expect,” Stanford said.
One source close to the party said the meeting followed poor internal polling revealed to the caucus last week.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins reshuffled his caucus in March.