Senior Cabinet minister Jim Sutton has opted not to stand for re-election to the Cabinet.

Mr Sutton lost his Aoraki seat at the election amid a backlash over his involvement in the speeding motorcade incident.

Helen Clark says it was Mr Sutton's decision.

She says he will be appointed as an additional minister through to the Hong Kong ministerial meetings of the WTO in December, after which time Phil Goff will take over the Trade Negotiations portfolio.

Helen Clark is due to announce the allocation of portfolios today and Cabinet will be sworn in tomorrow.

Six new faces have been elected to the Cabinet table.

Damien O'Connor, Lianne Dalziel, David Parker, Nanaia Mahuta, Clayton Cosgrove and David Cunliffe are the new ministers. Prime Minister Helen Clark says the new ministers were voted in by their colleagues on one ballot. She says she is pleased with the result.

Miss Clark says both she and Michael Cullen wanted fresh faces at the Cabinet table, adding that it is important for a third term Government to keep a renewal process going.

Nanaia Mahuta agrees she will bring a new and fresh face to the Cabinet table, and, replying to comments that she is being rewarded for sticking with Labour during the seabed and foreshore row, says her position on that matter had nothing to do with her future ambitions.

Meanwhile the woman who was sacked by Prime Minister Helen Clark for telling lies to the media has made it back into Cabinet.

Former Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel has served her time and is one of the six new ministers in the Labour Cabinet.

Ms Dalziel was all smiles when she faced the media last night. She says she had hoped her colleagues would once again have confidence in her. Ms Dalziel hopes she has paid her penance and says there will be 'no more porkies' from her.

Several ministers outside of Cabinet, besides Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne, will also be announced tomorrow.