National Party minister Dr Shane Reti has announced his retirement from politics, effective from the November 7 election.
He wished to “spend more time with the family and so it was time for me to announce my retirement”.
“The family have needs and wants of their dad and of their grandad, and so I’ll be spending more time with my family,” he said.
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 week said 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 after Collins’ was removed until Luxon took the top job in late 2021.
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.
Luxon at the time said he hadn’t lost confidence in Reti, but believed someone with the skills of Simeon Brown was necessary in the role.
Reti had faced ongoing scrutiny over Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora’s deficits and governance changes.
Speaking on Tuesday, Reti said Luxon expected him to continue in his roles for now.
He said, even if he remained Health Minister, it would be time to call it quits.
“I’m probably built for health and I thoroughly loved the time I had in the role and indeed maybe some of the achievements that were good, hopefully, made a difference in people’s lives.”
Reti called it a “privilege to be the safe pair of hands” National turned to in the brief period between Collins and Luxon’s leadership.
He said that had been “tumultuous times” for the party and believed the party was in a better shape now.
“We had challenges that everyone’s aware of, when I was placed into the interim role, and Christopher [Luxon] has shaped that up and given us direction and purpose that we didn’t have before.”
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.
Reti said reshaping the science and technology sector “to look more like other small advanced economies”, with improved taxpayer benefits, had “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.