Government Experience

Ministerial Appointments

In the National-led Coalition Government, Andrew held the following ministerial portfolios:

  • Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
  • Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing (New Zealand's first Minister of Manufacturing)
  • Minister of Statistics
  • Minister for ACC (Accident Compensation Commission)

Parliamentary Experience

  • Member of Parliament for Port Waikato (2020 - 2026) and Hunua (2014 - 2020)
  • Chair of the Environment and Local Government Select Committee and Justice Select Committee
  • Longest serving member of the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee (2014 – 2023)
  • Successfully passed two members' bills: Arbitration Amendment Bill (2019) and New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Fair Residency) Amendment Bill (2021)
  • Chair of the 3rd Antarctic Parliamentarians Assembly (December 2025) and elected Chair of the Steering Group for APA 2027

Shadow Cabinet Roles

In Opposition, Andrew held portfolios including Shadow Treasurer, Revenue, Infrastructure, Commerce & Consumer Affairs, State Owned Enterprises, Building & Construction, Small Business and Manufacturing, and Statistics.

Ministerial Experience

Commerce and Consumer Affairs

As Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Andrew introduced a number of significant reforms, including:

  • Clarified the role of the Financial Markets Authority, Commerce Commission and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand so that market participants had greater understanding of their accountability
  • Undertook a review of the Commerce Commission to consider its governance structure and initiated a review of New Zealand's competition settings (the first time in 20 years)
  • Introduced legislation to reform the insurance industry to ensure greater accountability (the first substantial upgrade in 30 years)
  • Introduced legislative reforms to simplify the conduct of financial institutions, particularly in relation to the obligations under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003
  • Introduced reforms to facilitate open banking, including the passage of the Customer and Product Data Act 2025, which established a Consumer Data Right (CDR)
  • Made reforms to New Zealand's capital market settings
  • Oversaw the development of reforms to simplify, modernise and digitalise the Companies Act 1993, New Zealand's primary legislation that governs companies, which has not been substantially addressed in 30 years
  • Developed the Government's response to financial scams, including working with ministerial counterparts in Australia and Singapore, after which he negotiated a new code setting out the responsibilities of banks with regard to scams
  • Led the policy development alongside the Minister of Education that resulted in the announcement that financial literacy would be included in the curriculum for schools

Small Business and Manufacturing

Given the importance of manufacturing to the New Zealand economy, Andrew strongly advocated for the appointment of a Minister of Manufacturing. In this ministerial capacity and as Minister for Small Business, he:

  • Re-established the Small Business Ministry Advisory Group and established a Ministerial Manufacturing Advisory Group
  • Initiated the first annual awards for New Zealand manufacturers given the inadequate recognition of this sector
  • Led the initiative for the introduction of accelerated depreciation on plant and equipment in Budget 2025, a policy he first advocated in the 2020 Election
  • Imposed a requirement on government entities to pay creditors within 10 working days (and five days if using e-invoicing)

Statistics

As Minister for Statistics, he:

  • Commenced the process of preparing Statistics New Zealand to replace the traditional, costly five-yearly paper census with a process using administrative data (from existing government records) supplemented by smaller annual surveys and targeted data collection to provide more frequent, timely, and cost-effective population insights
  • Investigated technology to ensure information derived by Statistics New Zealand was presented in a much more accessible form, particularly for use by small business owners and manufacturers
  • Investigated accessing other sources of real-time data on changes in households, such as how many people were living in a home, using their mobile data

Infrastructure and Building

As the spokesperson for Infrastructure and Building, Andrew announced a series of reforms to bring about improved procurement and delivery of projects.

Infrastructure

In order to radically change New Zealand's procurement processes, he proposed establishing a specialised procurement entity to transform the procurement of large projects and to better address risk sharing arrangements with the private sector:

  • Focused on planning, implementing and delivering government projects with a value of $250 million or more
  • Its primary role was to procure, arrange funding and manage risks during the contract period until completion of delivery
  • It would undertake and coordinate activities to meet wider customer outcomes and collaborate with Council procurement and infrastructure management where appropriate
  • It had an obligation to upskill government public servants and project managers (as was required in the UK)

Establish an infrastructure funding entity under the auspices of the New Zealand Government, and that agency to:

  • Provide access to financing from different sources (such as Government debt, foreign sovereign wealth funds) to address the issue of lack of scalability which often precludes offshore entities investing in infrastructure projects in New Zealand
  • Offer a full range of financial market instruments whether debt, equity, or hybrids, drawing on various markets, e.g. banking, bond or public issuance
  • Build relationships and expertise over time to engage the widest source of prospective funding that would assist in terms of more competitive bidding and also diversifying funding and country dependency

Building & Construction

He proposed measures to speed up the processing of building consents:

  • Streamline the building consent process, by imposing consistent standards across all councils to deliver a seamless experience
  • Review the Building Code with a goal of introducing a streamlined risk-based consenting that considered the size and complexity of a development and the builder's credentials
  • Encourage Accredited Building Organisations to prepare consents, undertake building inspections and prepare documents for code compliance certificates to be issued by councils
  • Transfer the processing of Category 3 building consents (buildings over 10 metres) to dedicated consenting teams that specialised in these types of buildings

He proposed to digitise the monitoring of building works by requiring BCAs to accept video and photos for remote inspections to create a digital record of work.

He proposed to lower building materials costs by:

  • Allowing building materials and product systems that meet equivalent international standards (e.g., American, British) to be automatically approved in New Zealand
  • Clarifying which materials and product systems require further testing by New Zealand regulatory testing authorities

He proposed to introduce other changes:

  • Make the promotion of competition a goal of the building regulatory system, as recommended by the Commerce Commission
  • Investigate options to reduce potential council liability for building performance
  • Address the issue of the repeated establishment of 'phoenix' construction companies, who left debts behind and re-established as new entities

Antarctic Parliamentarians Assembly

Andrew's passion for polar regions extends to his parliamentary work. In December 2019, he helped organise a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in London, in conjunction with a UK Member of Parliament, involving parliamentarians from around the world.

In December 2025, Andrew chaired the 3rd Antarctic Parliamentarians Assembly (APA) held at Parliament in Wellington, with representatives from 15 countries attending. The event was sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was subsequently elected Chair of the Steering Group for APA 2027.

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Andrew in government setting