Shane Reti holds a number of ministerial portfolios, including Universities, Science, Innovation and Technology and Statistics. Photo / Ben Dickens
Shane Reti holds a number of ministerial portfolios, including Universities, Science, Innovation and Technology and Statistics. Photo / Ben Dickens
National Party minister Dr Shane Reti has announced his retirement from politics, effective from the November 7 election.
It’s the latest in a string of resignations from the National Party, including New Lynn MP Paulo Garcia, former leader Judith Collins and West Coast-Tasman MP Maureen Pugh. Andrew Bayly last weeksaid he wouldn’t contest the Port Waikato electorate and would seek a list-only spot.
Reti’s upcoming retirement may prompt Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to remove him from Cabinet at the upcoming reshuffle.
That would give Luxon another opportunity to elevate fresh talent into the ministerial ranks. He will already have to find a replacement for Collins, who is also leaving politics.
Reti, a medical doctor, currently holds a number of ministerial portfolios, including Universities, Science, Innovation and Technology, Statistics, and Pacific Peoples.
He previously served as deputy leader of the National Party under Collins and briefly as interim leader until Luxon took the top job in late 2021.
Shane Reti is leaving politics after the election. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Upon entering Government in 2023, Reti held the role of Minister of Health, but that was stripped from him early last year as part of a Cabinet reshuffle.
In announcing his retirement on Tuesday, Reti said he wanted to thank “the people of Whangārei for the great privilege of serving them and to my partner and family for their understanding and unconditional contribution to this career”.
“I have always felt valued by the National Party and for that I thank the Prime Minister, local party executive, and my colleagues and staff in Wellington and Whangārei offices for their support over many years as Whangārei MP, deputy leader of the National Party, interim leader of the National Party and as a minister.”
He said highlights include progressing the four lanes to Whangārei and advancing policies that as Minister of Health expanded breast cancer screening for 70– to 74-year-old New Zealand women and establishing a third medical school at Waikato, as well as “reshaping the science and technology sector to look more like other small advanced economies that improves benefits to taxpayers has been a privilege – especially amalgamating the seven Crown Research Institutes into three Public Research Organisations”.
Reti was first elected to the seat of Whangārei in 2014, holding it until the 2020 election, when he lost it to Labour’s Emily Henderson. He won the electorate back in 2023 with a margin of 11,424 votes.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s 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.
