Two southern MPs gain ministerial posts

The south will have two Ministers outside Cabinet in the new Government, with Penny Simmonds and Mark Patterson both given portfolios.

Simmonds, National’s MP for Invercargill, becomes Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills, a position Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has long made clear he wanted for her.

She also becomes Minister for the Environment, Minister for Disability Issues and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment.

Simmonds said yesterday it was “an absolute honour and privilege’’ to be taking up her new responsibilities.

“I’m delighted to be given work to do that’s important, both for Southland and wider New Zealand,’’ she said.

The former chief executive of the Southern Institute of Technology, she has been an ardent critic of the Te Pūkenga mega polytechnic merger and said there were significant challenges ahead to bring tertiary education to a better space.

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NZ First MP Mark Patterson is Minister for Rural Communities. (File photo)

New Zealand First’s Clutha-based list MP Mark Patterson, who has returned to Parliament after serving 2017-2020, becomes Minister for Rural Communities.

He will also be one of three Associate Ministers of Agriculture for Todd McClay – the others being National’s Nicola Grigg and ACT’s Andrew Hoggard.

Patterson is a Lawrence sheep and beef farmer and former Federated Farmers Otago provincial chairperson.

He has been the party spokesperson for Agriculture and Primary Industry, and Bio-Security.