Now the work starts for Gorst…

Thursday 16 October 2014

Chief Minister Ian Gorst faces the prospect of needing four new faces to form a Council of Ministers in the coming weeks, if he manages to hang on to the top job.

The Senator – who last night became the first Chief Minister to stand for and win re-election – won a substantial mandate to continue in the job for another three-and-a-half years. He is likely to face a challenge from another Senator who had a good night, Alan Maclean, who is keen to move on from his Economic Development Minister’s role.

Although Senator Gorst is likely to hang on to the job when Members come to pick a new Chief Minister, he will then face a new challenge – replacing his departed Social Security, Home Affairs, Education and Environment ministers.

The Social Security, Education and Environment jobs are going to be huge in the next three-and-a-half years, so those jobs need serious players in them.

The boy Gorst will also have to manage the tricky issue of the Health portfolio – the current minister, Deputy Anne Pryke, is one of his closest allies, but Senator-elect Andrew Green is a popular figure within the States Chamber and his impressive Senatorial poll puts him in a solid position for promotion.

That would leave the Housing Minister’s role vacant, but given that the Housing department has now been removed from direct States control, that’s not as big a portfolio as it used to be.

Senator Lyndon Farnham has said that he wants a crack at the Economic Development job, and Senator Bailhache wants to hang on to the International Relations role, which leaves one big remaining question… the Treasury.

It’s arguably a bigger role than the Chief Minister’s, in terms of holding the purse strings for departments, leading on tax policy and the work with the dominant finance industry. It is incredibly unlikely that Senator Ozouf will want to move out of the department after six years, but the possibility of a challenge from Senator Maclean means that the job could be in play.