Labour rookie MP Grant Robertson vaults up the party rankings and becomes spokesman for tertiary education in the wake of the demotion of Shane Jones, Chris Carter, and Mita Ririnui for their credit card misdeeds. Maryan Street and Charles Chauvel move into senior roles in Foreign Affairs and Environment respectively, and Nanaia Mahuta takes over Energy from Chauvel. In other changes David Parker becomes spokesman for Economic Development, Stuart Nash gains Forestry, and Darren Hughes adds Infrastructure to his other responsibilities. Hughes, now at 8 in the rankings, has become an effective politician heading higher in the party.

Shane Jones who was tipped in some quarters as a future leader, has set himself a huge task to make a comeback, but those who back him say he has the qualities to become relevant again. The difficulty he faces is to find a platform (or a cause) from which to re-launch his career. Meanwhile the reshuffle is seen as a start in the task Goff faces of rehabilitating Labour. Clearly he will need a broader reshuffle later in the year, to replace those intending to retire in 2011, but, more importantly, to widen the party’s political appeal. For this, it might be necessary to weed out some of the makeweight list MPs, and catapult new talent into the House.

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