The Whangārei MP Dr Reti has been in Parliament since 2014 and is now minister for universities, science and technology, Pacific peoples, and statistics.
Upon announcing his retirement yesterday, Dr Reti said he "always felt valued" by the National Party.
But at least two commentators have said losing the health minister portfolio last year would have hurt him personally.
Executive dean of Bond University business school Prof Robin Gauld said losing the health portfolio would have been hard for him to take.
"I'm sure it was quite a personal blow to him given that he's a trained medical professional and has an extraordinary amount of experience, actually.
"He's got an incredible portfolio of work prior to being an MP. He was based at Harvard Medical School for three years.
"He was a very, very committed GP who understood the sector with a level of depth that you would expect of a health minister, I would have thought."
Dr Reti was health minister when the government paused the new Dunedin hospital project in September 2024, triggering a public backlash and eventually 30,000 people marching against the government’s decision.
"I think at the end of the day, it's political management.
"If I think back about all the ministers of health, it's difficult to name one that wasn't completely embattled in terms of their handling of the portfolio."
Former Labour health minister Pete Hodgson said Dr Reti’s political career was "trashed" when Prime Minister Christopher Luxon agreed to abandon the previous government’s strongly supported smoking cessation programmes as part of the coalition deal to form a government.
"Dr Reti had to implement these retrograde decisions, which left him with no respect among health professionals.
"He was ‘dead man walking’ long before he and ... Chris Bishop rode into town in September 2024.
"His decision to quit is both sensible and predictable.
"He has more to offer outside politics."
Prof Gauld said Dr Reti was nonetheless influential in getting the controversial proposed medical school at Waikato University over the line.
"Maybe Dr Reti is going to become the founding dean of the medical school at Waikato. They've been advertising."
