Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson may be at the other end of the political spectrum from National but she does have a place in her heart for their demoted deputy leader from Ngāpuhi.
Dr Shane Reti was demoted from his position of deputy leader, after Christopher Luxon assumed the leadership position from Judith Collins, and promptly appointed Nicola Willis as his deputy.
It is believed both inside and outside the National caucus that Reti did a solid job as deputy to Judith Collins, and wasn’t responsible for any of the infighting amongst party members, despite being No. 2 to one of the party’s most pulverising figures.
Davidson said of Reti, “I was a bit sad to see the whanaunga from the north demoted.”
She continued “We should be very thankful for all the work he does in the health space, both for his community and whanau. He is a very hard-working MP, who does it for the good of the people. Yes I’m a little sad he’s been demoted.”
Bumped down
Reti never appeared to be a serious contender for the top job, though it would be surprising if he was removed as health spokesperson, considering he is the only medical doctor in National.
Former leader and leadership contender Simon Bridges was yesterday handed the finance spokesperson role by his “good friend” Christopher Luxon, with whispers he’s going to jump to No 3 on the party list, further pushing Reti down the party hierarchy.
Davidson said she didn’t know enough about Luxon to make a call on his abilities as the opposition leader “He’s a new MP, I don’t know if he’ll be a good leader or not, but that’s National’s business. What I can say is that, whoever their leader is, their party has very different politics to us -the Greens.”