Shane Reti

Shane Raymond Reti (born 5 June 1963) is a New Zealand politician and a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and a Cabinet Minister with the roles of Minister of Health and Minister for Pacific Peoples, since 27 November 2023.

Born in Hamilton in 1963, Reti is of Māori descent, and has tribal affiliations to Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai, Te Kapotai and Ngāti Maniapoto.

He was educated at Hamilton Boys' High School and Minidoka County High School in Rupert, Idaho, United States.

He played badminton for Waikato between 1978 and 1982.

Reti worked as a general practitioner for 17 years.

For seven years and three consecutive terms he served as a member of the Northland District Health Board.

He then studied at the University of Waikato from 1981 to 1982 and the University of Auckland between 1982 and 1987 and in 1989, graduating from the latter with a Bachelor of Human Biology in 1985, MB ChB in 1987 and a Diploma in Obstetrics in 1989.

Reti served in the Territorial Force from 1983 to 1987.

He was also awarded a Diploma in Dermatological Science by the University of Wales, Cardiff in 1991.

In the 2006 New Year Honours he was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for public services.

In 2007 Reti was awarded a NZ Harkness Fellowship to Harvard Medical School and moved to Massachusetts to work at Harvard University.

Reti remained in Boston for six years and claims to have resisted offers by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School to extend his stay.

Reti has continued to be a practising doctor during his time in parliament.

He was first elected at the 2014 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Whangārei electorate.

Early in 2014, Reti won the National Party nomination in the safe electorate against sitting list MP Paul Foster-Bell for the.

At the, he had a large margin over Labour's Kelly Ellis.

During the Northland by-election, Reti was accused of bullying Alex Wright of the Pipiwai Titoki Advocacy group, a group campaigning to seal the "dusty and dangerous foresty roads" in Northland.

Wright claimed that Reti rang her and told her to keep quiet until after the by-election or get nothing.

Reti responded that he was attempting to help the group.

During the, Reti was re-elected in Whangārei, defeating Labour candidate Tony John Savage by a margin of 10,967 votes.

Following the formation of the Labour-led coalition government, Reti became National's Associate Spokesperson for Health and Deputy Chaiperson of the Health Select Committee.

He was later appointed as the party's spokesperson for data and cybersecurity and for disability issues.

In 2019 Reti was one of a team who administered the meningococcal vaccine at Hikurangi primary school after the local community raised money to buy the vaccine.

In 2021 Reti travelled Northland administering COVID-19 vaccinations.

In 2021 industry publication New Zealand Doctor indicated that having a doctor high up is important to the profession, announcing "Shane Reti is the first GP, and first medical practitioner, to become leader of the National Party".

In January 2019, Reti was designated as National's spokesperson for tertiary education, skills, and employment.

He is a member of the New Zealand National Party and served as its deputy leader from 10 November 2020 to 30 November 2021 including a period of five days as interim leader following the ousting of Judith Collins.

Between 25 March and 26 May 2020, Reti was a member of the Epidemic Response Committee, a select committee that considered the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 2 July, Reti was promoted to number 13 on the National Party's list ranking within Todd Muller's shadow cabinet and also given the associate drug reform portfolio.

On 15 July 2020, Judith Collins, the new Leader of the Opposition, announced that Reti was to be promoted to Spokesperson for Health for National.

During the 2020 New Zealand general election held on 17 October, preliminary results had Reti ahead of Labour candidate Emily Henderson in the Whangārei electorate by 162 votes.

Following the publication of official results on 6 November, he lost the seat to Henderson by 431 votes.

He returned to Parliament on the National Party list.

On 10 November, Reti was unanimously elected as the deputy leader of the National Party during a party caucus meeting.

In mid November 2021, Reti briefly served as interim leader of the National Party after Judith Collins lost a vote of no confidence.

On 30 November, he was succeeded by Christopher Luxon, who became the party's new leader and the new Leader of the Opposition.

On 17 January 2022, Reti successfully petitioned SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to provide Starlink satellite technology to Tonga after the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai tsunami.

Tonga lost internet connectivity to the world after the underwater cables were ruptured during the eruption and resulting tsunami.

Reti did not have a pre-existing relationship with Musk but reasoned that "I guess Elon Musk can only say no and if you don't ask you don't know".

In response Musk's SpaceX set up a free high-speed internet service for the affected remote islands, to remain until they could be reconnected by cable.