New Zealanders have voted for a change in government, with the National Party to lead a new center-right coalition with ACT and potentially New Zealand First.
With all but the special votes counted, National has received 39% of the party vote, with coalition partner ACT garnering 9% and New Zealand First taking 6.5%.
The Labour Government has plummeted to almost half its 50% vote from 2020, to 26.9%. Labour has lost some of its safest general seats and half of the Māori seats it held in 2020.
Te Tai Tonga, Te Tai Hauāuru, and Hauraki-Waikato have all switched from Labour to Te Pāti Māori, and Labour leads of a couple hundred votes are the only things standing between two more Māori party candidates heading to parliament for Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Tai Tokerau.
Hipkins concedes
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has conceded there is no chance he could form a government despite the Greens and Te Pāti Māori clearing 10.8% and 2.6% respectively, and that Labour is heading out after six years and two terms in office.
“The result tonight is not one that any of us wanted,” Hipkins told a crowd at his Lower Hutt election headquarters.
Hipkins replaced Jacinda Ardern in January, but joins other prime ministers like Mike Moore, Jenny Shipley, and Bill English in failing to win an election in their own right after taking over from another leader mid-term.
“I gave it my all to turn the tide of history, but alas, that was not enough.”
A Vision for Change in the Māori Seats
The Māori seats have seen a significant shift towards Te Pāti Māori, with the party guaranteed four of the seven seats, and potentially more.
Te Tai Tonga, the stronghold that has been Labour’s Rino Tirikatene for more than a decade, has changed hands to Te Pāti Māori candidate Tākuta Ferris, with around 1500 more votes.
In Te Tai Hauāuru, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer doubled the votes of the Labour candidate at 11,695.
And in Hauraki-Waikato, Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke takes over from Nanaia Mahuta who is the longest currently serving wahine Māori MP in parliament, having held the seat since it’s creation in 1996.
National leader Christopher Luxon welcomes results
National leader Christopher Luxon welcomed the shift to the right in terms of the party vote, saying they were a mandate for change.
“You have reached for hope and you have voted for change,” Luxon told supporters. “On the numbers tonight, National will be in a position to lead the next government.”
Luxon pledged to deliver for every New Zealander, and to rebuild the economy, deliver tax relief, bring down the cost of living, restore law and order, deliver better healthcare, and educate children.
Conservative Māori helped sweep National to victory
Conservative Māori played a key role in National’s victory, with three of the party’s new MPs winning seats despite having low rankings on the party list.
Dan Bidois (Northcote), James Meager (Rangitata), and David MacLeod (New Plymouth) were listed at 60, 67, and 69 respectively, but all three beat their Labour opponents to win their seats.
On the left, 26-year-old Wellington city councillor, Tamatha Paul (Waikato, Ngāti Awa) won the Wellington Central seat currently held by Labour finance minister Grant Robertson, for the Greens.
Act to enter government.
Act Party, led by David Seymour looks set to enter Parliament and government with the party hovering around 9% of the vote.
Seymour cheered the results, saying that the country had voted for change and a record number had voted for ‘real change’.
“I long said that getting elected is not an achievement, it’s an opportunity to do good. We will work tirelessly and will not cease from the effort required to make sure that this country delivers the promise it has made to so many people.” he told a raucous crowd in his Epsom electorate.
NZ First’s kingmaker crown, up in the air
With the party hovering around the 6% mark, just over the 5% threshold to return to Parliament, It’s not certain whether Winston Peters will end up with the much-mooted “kingmaker” role again, as National and ACT combined are reaching the 62 seats needed to form a government, prior to the specials.
Peters was characteristically jubilant addressing supporters, saying that the party had done the impossible and entered its fourth decade.
He suggested that there were a lot of National’s promises that were not affordable and he would work to rein them in, given the chance.
“If we can help, going forward, we will.” He said.
-Additional reporting, RNZ