An interesting combination and probably some compromises along the way.
External Relations
External relations is playing to strength, with Ian Gorst easily the most capable candidate, and also the one who has already built relationships with MPs and Mandarins in Whitehall. It was notable that when I was delivering leaflets for Ian, I did get a lot of resistance to his getting in and being re-elected Chief Minister, but when I said it was more likely he would end up with External Relations, I actually swayed some of the more hard line doubters.
Possible Challengers: None
Previous Experience: Social Security Minister, Chief Minister
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Treasury
I have heard it rumoured that part of the deal for Ian Gorst to be External Relations was for Susie Pinel to be nominated for Treasury and Resources.
Susie certainly has shown an ability to prioritise budgets while at Social Security, indeed one of the criticisms leveied at her during the last election was prioritising budgets over people! But in a department like Treasury, this will not be such a conflict.
Interestingly, she said in an election Q&A: “SoJDC has a very competent and cohesive Board of Trustees and should be permitted the commercial freedom to act as a business in a competitive fashion.” It will be interesting to see how she gets on with John Le Fondré, who has had several run-ins with SoJDC as a Chair of Scrutiny about lack of transparency and the kind of “sweeteners” offered to developments.
This move is not without precedent. Terry Le Sueur was at Social Security before making the move to Treasury. And she must have some experience of managing difficult budgets and making hard decisions. Treasury is not always popular, and if Alan Maclean is to be believed, taxes may have to rise – funny how he said that after he decided not to stand, and kept on about a buoyant economy before!
Will we see more stealth taxes, which John Le Fondré did not like, or a more radical change to the main system of taxation, with a higher base rate instead? Will GST increase as an offset against reducing the retail tax to 10%? Difficult decisions ahead, and while I don’t always agree with her decisions at Social Security, making difficult decisions, as the late Don Filleuil told me, is what government is about.
Possible Challengers: None
Previous Experience: Social Security Assistant Minister, Social Security Minister
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Education
Tracey Valois was where promised by both sides. Always thorough and competent, one of the main planks of her election campaign was to address the population problem by identifying skills shortages and addressing that via the education system. I think she’ll do a good job.
Possible Challengers: Rob Ward
Previous Experience: Assistant Minister, Education, Sport and Culture
Health and Social Services
Sarah Ferguson is the only States member to have created an organisation chart for Health and Social Services, entirely on her own, when she was informed that they didn’t have one! Always thorough she is also someone who will not be content with the status quo, although what happens with the hospital site remains to be seen.
That is the biggest challenge, but the day to day demands of health are also important. Will she move for a health charge? Both she and John le Fondré have opposed this kind of stealth tax so it will be interesting to see if being in charge will change matters.
Possible Challengers: Potential, but no clear candidates. Perhaps Richard Renouf
Previous Experience: Scrutiny
Result: Defeated by Richard Renouf, 27 to 21.
Social Security
Judy Martin has criticised Social Security and a proposition of hers gave under 16s with severe disabilities their “care component” back through Social Security. This debate lead to an overall strategy for people with a disability in Jersey. I think she will be more like Francis Le Gresley as a Minister than Susie Pinel in having a more visibly people centred approach.
Previous Experience: Assistant Minister for Health and Social Services
Possible Challengers: Geoff Southern
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Infrastructure
Kevin Lewis was also not a surprise. He was annoyed to be taken off as Minister for what was then TTS and is now Infrastructure, and was a firm Le Fondré supporter. As someone with experience of the role, he is an ideal candidate. When he was last there, he continued the good work began by Mike Jackson.
Previous Experience: Economic Development Minister
Possible Challengers: Steve Pallett, especially regarding sports and healthy lifestyles. Montfort Tadier regarding culture.
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Environment
John Young is an ideal candidate. Despite John Henwood’s comments that he is too close to members of the Department, it is around 17 years since he was Chief Officer at Planning and while he knows about how the Department works from the inside, there will be no conflict with former senior colleagues because they will have left by now. John has made some strong criticisms of Planning decisions under Steve Luce's leadership, so expect some changes, particularly with regard to ugly shoreline development.
Previous Experience, Chief Officer at Planning, Planning Officer for States of Alderney
Possible Challengers: Steve Luce
Deputy John Young is the new Environment Minister, defeating Deputy Steve Luce by 24 votes to 23, with 1 abstention.
Housing
Sam Mezec inherits a rump of a Department, clinging onto life originally so there was somewhere to place Ann Pryke when Andrew Green got Health in place of her. The civil servants all became part of Andium, and it has civil servant support as required on an ad hoc basis from the Chief Minister. The Children’s Minister forthcoming is the real deal here. In the meantime, there is a seat at the Council of Ministers table.
Previous Experience: None
Possible Challengers: None (who wants a rump of a Department!)
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Home Affairs
Taken from Kristina Moore, and given to Len Norman. Supremely capable and confident and thorough, and responsible for forging ahead with eGov initiatives on registering to vote and streaming States sessions, there is no doubt that Len would be able to do the job.
Previous Experience: Assistant Minister Treasury, President of PPC, President of the Harbours and Airport Committee, and Vice-President of the Special Committee on the Composition and Election of the States, a past president of the Social Security, Harbours and Airport, Housing, and Education Committees.
Possible Challengers: Kristina Moore (late news, she has just said she will not challenge for this role)
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Conclusion:
Roy Le Hérissier, as a “political commentator” on the BBC, said there was a lack of experience in the new line up. He is mistaken. In fact, apart from Sam Mezec and Sarah Ferguson, every one proposed has experience either as a Minister or Assistant Minister or as a Chief Officer (John Young) and has some inside knowledge of how departments work.
When I began this, I didn’t think the team was that strong, but having looked at it in more depth, I think it is probably more experienced in terms of Ministerial Government than it looked at first sight.
The interesting thing now will be the challengers!
This move is not without precedent. Terry Le Sueur was at Social Security before making the move to Treasury. And she must have some experience of managing difficult budgets and making hard decisions. Treasury is not always popular, and if Alan Maclean is to be believed, taxes may have to rise – funny how he said that after he decided not to stand, and kept on about a buoyant economy before!
Will we see more stealth taxes, which John Le Fondré did not like, or a more radical change to the main system of taxation, with a higher base rate instead? Will GST increase as an offset against reducing the retail tax to 10%? Difficult decisions ahead, and while I don’t always agree with her decisions at Social Security, making difficult decisions, as the late Don Filleuil told me, is what government is about.
Possible Challengers: None
Previous Experience: Social Security Assistant Minister, Social Security Minister
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Education
Tracey Valois was where promised by both sides. Always thorough and competent, one of the main planks of her election campaign was to address the population problem by identifying skills shortages and addressing that via the education system. I think she’ll do a good job.
Possible Challengers: Rob Ward
Previous Experience: Assistant Minister, Education, Sport and Culture
Health and Social Services
Sarah Ferguson is the only States member to have created an organisation chart for Health and Social Services, entirely on her own, when she was informed that they didn’t have one! Always thorough she is also someone who will not be content with the status quo, although what happens with the hospital site remains to be seen.
That is the biggest challenge, but the day to day demands of health are also important. Will she move for a health charge? Both she and John le Fondré have opposed this kind of stealth tax so it will be interesting to see if being in charge will change matters.
Possible Challengers: Potential, but no clear candidates. Perhaps Richard Renouf
Previous Experience: Scrutiny
Result: Defeated by Richard Renouf, 27 to 21.
Social Security
Judy Martin has criticised Social Security and a proposition of hers gave under 16s with severe disabilities their “care component” back through Social Security. This debate lead to an overall strategy for people with a disability in Jersey. I think she will be more like Francis Le Gresley as a Minister than Susie Pinel in having a more visibly people centred approach.
Previous Experience: Assistant Minister for Health and Social Services
Possible Challengers: Geoff Southern
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Infrastructure
Kevin Lewis was also not a surprise. He was annoyed to be taken off as Minister for what was then TTS and is now Infrastructure, and was a firm Le Fondré supporter. As someone with experience of the role, he is an ideal candidate. When he was last there, he continued the good work began by Mike Jackson.
At that time, however, Property Holdings was not in the remit of the Department so this is something new for him to get to grips with, especially with its involvement with the Les Quennevais School site, and possible compulsory purchase, and the Hospital site plans. Any proposed waste charge is still on the table, but John Le Fondré has stated he doesn’t like these piecemeal stealth tax add-ons so it may be dropped.
Previous Experience: Minister for TTS (before the rebranding)
Possible Challengers: None
Actual Challengers: Steve Pallett (breaking news)
Result: Deputy Kevin Lewis has been elected as the new Infrastructure Minister, defeating challenger Senator Steve Pallett by 25 votes to 23.
Economic Development
Lyndon Farnham has stayed in position, although it is now a much smaller department as most of the tourism functions have been hived off to Visit Jersey and Events Jersey, and Jersey Sport has taken most of the sporting functions. Culture and some economic development remain.
Previous Experience: Minister for TTS (before the rebranding)
Possible Challengers: None
Actual Challengers: Steve Pallett (breaking news)
Result: Deputy Kevin Lewis has been elected as the new Infrastructure Minister, defeating challenger Senator Steve Pallett by 25 votes to 23.
Economic Development
Lyndon Farnham has stayed in position, although it is now a much smaller department as most of the tourism functions have been hived off to Visit Jersey and Events Jersey, and Jersey Sport has taken most of the sporting functions. Culture and some economic development remain.
Will culture now receive more attention? Recent news has shown a sorry neglect by politicians, so will Lyndon step up to the mark? The Innovation Fund could also be relaunched, but along the lines suggested by Tony Moretta of Digital Jersey (a consummate professional who unfortunately was not there when it was first set up)
Question to ponder: was part of the deal of keeping his seat taking on Monty Tadier as Assistant Minister for Culture?
Question to ponder: was part of the deal of keeping his seat taking on Monty Tadier as Assistant Minister for Culture?
Previous Experience: Economic Development Minister
Possible Challengers: Steve Pallett, especially regarding sports and healthy lifestyles. Montfort Tadier regarding culture.
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Environment
John Young is an ideal candidate. Despite John Henwood’s comments that he is too close to members of the Department, it is around 17 years since he was Chief Officer at Planning and while he knows about how the Department works from the inside, there will be no conflict with former senior colleagues because they will have left by now. John has made some strong criticisms of Planning decisions under Steve Luce's leadership, so expect some changes, particularly with regard to ugly shoreline development.
Previous Experience, Chief Officer at Planning, Planning Officer for States of Alderney
Possible Challengers: Steve Luce
Deputy John Young is the new Environment Minister, defeating Deputy Steve Luce by 24 votes to 23, with 1 abstention.
Housing
Sam Mezec inherits a rump of a Department, clinging onto life originally so there was somewhere to place Ann Pryke when Andrew Green got Health in place of her. The civil servants all became part of Andium, and it has civil servant support as required on an ad hoc basis from the Chief Minister. The Children’s Minister forthcoming is the real deal here. In the meantime, there is a seat at the Council of Ministers table.
Previous Experience: None
Possible Challengers: None (who wants a rump of a Department!)
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Home Affairs
Taken from Kristina Moore, and given to Len Norman. Supremely capable and confident and thorough, and responsible for forging ahead with eGov initiatives on registering to vote and streaming States sessions, there is no doubt that Len would be able to do the job.
Previous Experience: Assistant Minister Treasury, President of PPC, President of the Harbours and Airport Committee, and Vice-President of the Special Committee on the Composition and Election of the States, a past president of the Social Security, Harbours and Airport, Housing, and Education Committees.
Possible Challengers: Kristina Moore (late news, she has just said she will not challenge for this role)
Result: Elected Unapposed.
Conclusion:
Roy Le Hérissier, as a “political commentator” on the BBC, said there was a lack of experience in the new line up. He is mistaken. In fact, apart from Sam Mezec and Sarah Ferguson, every one proposed has experience either as a Minister or Assistant Minister or as a Chief Officer (John Young) and has some inside knowledge of how departments work.
When I began this, I didn’t think the team was that strong, but having looked at it in more depth, I think it is probably more experienced in terms of Ministerial Government than it looked at first sight.
The interesting thing now will be the challengers!
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