{"id":323371,"date":"2026-03-11T01:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323371\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T01:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:37:08","slug":"election-2026-labour-party-announces-caucus-reshuffle-willow-jean-prime-loses-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323371\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: Labour Party announces caucus reshuffle, Willow-Jean Prime loses education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camilla Belich is the party\u2019s new justice spokeswoman. Justice was a portfolio held by Duncan Webb, who is leaving politics.<\/p>\n

Willie Jackson has lost social development and is taking on M\u0101ori-Crown relations.<\/p>\n

Prime will now be the social development spokeswoman. She was the education spokeswoman but has now lost that, but will hold on to an associate education portfolio with a focus on M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

Her credibility in the education portfolio came under scrutiny last year after the Herald revealed she had initially ignored <\/a>and then declined briefings on the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) change programme. <\/p>\n

\"Labour'sLabour’s new caucus team after the reshuffle. Graphic \/ Labour Party<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealanders are looking for a Government that\u2019s focused on the issues that matter \u2013 the cost of living, jobs, health and homes. Our team is energised, experienced, and ready to govern,\u201d Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s movement into the M\u0101ori-Crown relations and associate health (M\u0101ori) portfolios was to reflect \u201chis key role and focus on running a winning campaign for the M\u0101ori seats this year\u201d, Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

The leader said Prime\u2019s social development and employment role requires \u201ccare, empathy and a strong focus on improving outcomes for New Zealanders\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgie Dansey will pick up the rainbow issues and regulation portfolios, and Dan Rosewarne will be spokesperson for rural communities and small business once he is sworn in,\u201d Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Duncan Webb is not running for re-election, I am very grateful that he will be taking on a mentoring role to support our team as we prepare to govern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reshuffle has taken into account the departures of several MPs from the Labour team, including the upcoming exits of current justice spokesman Webb <\/a>and foreign affairs and defence spokesman Henare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is also common for parties to make reshuffles in an election year. The Prime Minister is expected to announce a Cabinet reshuffle sometime in the coming weeks that will have to reflect the resignations of the likes of Judith Collins and Shane Reti.<\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Camilla Belich is the party\u2019s new justice spokeswoman. Justice was a portfolio held by Duncan Webb, who is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2246,48993,694,682,6727,173554,84,5903,174578,29888,42,6721,11517,5836,43,4762,7234,11535,415,42033,7801,40,38,41,39,174577,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-323371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-2246","9":"tag-andersen","10":"tag-announces","11":"tag-being","12":"tag-cabinet","13":"tag-caucus","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-election","16":"tag-ginny","17":"tag-handed","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-labour","20":"tag-loses","21":"tag-lost","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-party","24":"tag-partys","25":"tag-portfolio","26":"tag-prime","27":"tag-reshuffle","28":"tag-shadow","29":"tag-top-news","30":"tag-top-stories","31":"tag-topnews","32":"tag-topstories","33":"tag-willowjean","34":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}