New Zealand’s new Labour-led government has dismantled the MPI mega-ministry, splitting it into three parts covering forestry, fisheries and agriculture respectively.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the plan would allow greater focus on each sector. She wants to see emphasis on forestry as a single entity rather than rolled into a mega industry and she singled out fisheries, saying it had faced some “dysfunction” under MPI’s watch.
MPI was set up by National in 2012, bringing together the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Fisheries and the Food Safety Authority.
Labour MP Stuart Nash will be the new Minister of Fisheries, New Zealand First MP Shane Jones will be the Minister of Forestry and Labour’s Damien O’Connor will be responsible for Agriculture, Biosecurity and Food Safety.
