Priyanca Radhakrishnan becomes New Zealand's first-ever Indian-origin minister
03 November, 2020
Priyanca Radhakrishnan on Monday became New Zealand's first-ever Indian-origin minister after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern inducted five new ministers into her executive.
Born in Kerala's Ernakulam district, Radhakrishnan, 41, went to school in Singapore before moving to New Zealand to further her education.
She's become New Zealand's first-ever Kiwi Indian Minister, the brand new Zealand Herald newspaper quoted Indian Weekender as saying.
Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja congratulated Radhakrishnan through her Twitter handle.
She was elected first as an associate of Parliament owned by the Labour Party in September 2017.
In 2019, she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities.
Her work in that area has helped her build the bottom for her new role of Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities.
In addition to this, she has end up being the Minister for the city and Voluntary Sector and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment.
Radhakrishnan, who's from the 2017 intake of new MPs, is a minister beyond the Cabinet.
She lives in Auckland with her husband.
Announcing the names of the brand new ministers, Prime Minister Ardern said: "I am excited to be attracting some new talent, with first-hand experience in the areas that they will be working in, and reflecting the New Zealand that elected us on the 17th of October”.
"Within this lineup, I'm playing to people's strengths," she said.
"That is a Cabinet and an executive that is predicated on merit but also is actually incredibly diverse," Ardern said, days after her centre-left Labour Party won a landslide victory in the country's general election.
The new executive will be sworn in on Friday, which will be accompanied by the Cabinet's first meeting.
"Much of what we're centered on is making sure we have our economical recovery hastened," the 40-year-old prime minister said.
If ministers don't deliver, they will be shown the door, Ardern warned.
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