The Shadow Cabinet of Christopher Luxon has formed the official Opposition in the 53rd New Zealand Parliament since December 2021, replacing the Shadow Cabinet of Judith Collins.
Christopher Luxon was appointed Leader of the National Party and Leader of the Opposition in a party leadership election on 30 November 2021.
Origins
On 24 November 2021, National Party leader Judith Collins demoted National MP and former leader Simon Bridges over historical allegations of "serious misconduct" involving fellow MP Jacqui Dean.
In response to Collins' demotion of Bridges, the National Party's parliamentary caucus passed a vote of no confidence in her leadership on 25 November.
Deputy leader Shane Reti assumed the role of interim leader until a leadership vote was held on 30 November.
Bridges and Christopher Luxon announced they were running for the leadership while Nicola Willis announced she was running for the deputy leadership.
Prior to the leadership vote on 30 November, Bridges withdrew from the race and endorsed Luxon.
As a result, Luxon and Willis were elected as leader and deputy leader.
Formation
In his first post-leadership election press conference on 30 November 2021, Luxon did not release many details on portfolio allocations that would be given out in the first iteration of his shadow cabinet, but it was confirmed that Wellington Central-based List MP Nicola Willis would be Deputy Leader of the Opposition and that she would most likely retain the Housing spokesperson portfolio.
The following day the Otago Daily Times reported that Michael Woodhouse, who shared the Finance portfolio with Andrew Bayly, was likely to not retain the role in Luxon's shadow cabinet.
Luxon announced on 2 December 2021 that Bridges would be the finance and infrastructure spokesperson, ranked third in the shadow cabinet.
Luxon announced the remaining portfolio allocations on 6 December.
Only the first 20 were given numerical rankings, with the rest being listed by seniority.
On 7 December, the caucus elected Chris Penk as senior whip and re-elected Maureen Pugh as junior whip.
List of spokespersons
References
Luxon, Christopher Luxon, Christopher Category:2021 establishments in New Zealand
