With so many Labour back benchers I wonder how they can be gainfully employed?

BarTender: I’m just happy it’s finally over.

It will probably take until the next election or two for National to realise that appealing to the fundamentalist factions aren’t going to win you votes.
I suspect ACT will implode this term as with 10 MPs with even more extreme views David will struggle to keep them in line and one or two will pull a JLR style defection.

And Labour will be under immense pressure to deliver on their promises without raising taxes... which we all know needs to happen to pay for the society we all want to live in.

I completely agree about it finally being over.

Thankfully we will be spared a full Jamie Lee Ross situation thanks to the waka jumping act.

Both Act and Labour will have problems with their new MPs, ACTs aren't fully vetted and full of lunatics. For Labour 65 is a lot of competent MPs to find. To give some context Aaron Gilmore was from around 56 on the National list. There is likely to be a few similar problems for Labour, just through size.

linw:

 

With so many Labour back benchers I wonder how they can be gainfully employed?

 

43 of them are electorate MPs and there are still a lot of select committees to fill. If 15 of them had gone to National they would remain back bench MPs doing much the same stuff.

The other thing to remember is this is likely to get worse for National once the special votes come in. They normally drop 1-2% from their election night result and Labour / Green normally go up.

Shane Reti is on a knife edge in Whangarei (he has a 200 vote majority) so they could lose another electorate and 1-2 more seats.

Hypothetical question - if Jamie Lee Ross had run in Botany again and actually won...well, I shudder to think about Advance NZ being part of any government.

But would he have won though? Was he actually popular in the Botany electorate? Did he do a good job for his constituents there?

@Rikkitc will be glad that Lawrence Yule is out :)

linw:

Credit where it is due. Jacinda's speech was darned impressive. Great content, great manner and fluency with NO notes.

Well done. 

Let's hope NZ can do well in hard times ahead.

nztim: This will be the first MMP electionwhere a party can govern alone, no checks and balances and not sure that this is a good thing

I dont see that. If people want promises kept there needs to be mandate and the means forward to act on that. National or Labour with a majority is not the same as Greens or ACT with a majority

I had too much celebration juice last night to formulate a coherent comment then. I am glad Labour won big enough to rule alone, whether they join with the Greens or not. This is a big item on my wish list. I have long wanted to see an unencumbered progressive government in power, just to see what they can do. Now that the NZ First millstone is gone, I expect big things from the next government. If they again fail to deliver, that will be it as far as I am concerned, and I will go back to casting protest votes. I have high hopes, but am tempering my expectations. They better deliver.

My sympathies to National believers. I know how it feels to have your side lose. Let us hope this turns out to be for the better. I am sure we all want to see New Zealand do well.

And yes, I am delighted that Yule got sent to the showers in my electorate. It was about time. I never liked his politics, though I think he did a good job as local MP. I hope his replacement does even better.

BarTender: I’m just happy it’s finally over.

It will probably take until the next election or two for National to realise that appealing to the fundamentalist factions aren’t going to win you votes.
I suspect ACT will implode this term as with 10 MPs with even more extreme views David will struggle to keep them in line and one or two will pull a JLR style defection.

And Labour will be under immense pressure to deliver on their promises without raising taxes... which we all know needs to happen to pay for the society we all want to live in.

neb:

quickymart:

 

Surprised to see so many seats that I thought would be National for a trillion years flip to Labour - Nelson and Northcote immediately come to mind.

 

Small sample size, but I know a number of National supporters who voted Labour not just because of the obvious Covid19 but also to keep Winston, and to a lesser extent the Greens, out. Mostly Winston though. So he may have been Labour's secret weapon.

i was one of them but mine was more the Greens. 

It would be nice to see JA tell the Greens to take a hike, although I don't think she will. They give me the impression, rightly or wrongly, that they feel entitled to some ministerial positions.

As Labour can govern alone it would also be nice if they implemented some Parliamentary reforms. Terms extended to 4 years, MP's limited to 12 years (I'm sick of the same old faces sucking on the public teat for year after year) and the number of MP's reduced to say 100.

ACT need to enjoy their time in the sun as well as I reckon it's a one hit wonder. Seymour found a couple of issues, opposing gun legislation and end of life, to hang his hat on and got a great deal of exposure because of it. The gun lobby especially would probably have party voted ACT to a man and that's a not inconsiderable number of voters. Next time round he maybe won't have them to bolster his numbers and end of life will be part of the NZ landscape.

Eva888: 

I think a lot of the rural swing vote towards Labour was because they didn’t want Labour to govern together with the Greens and knowing a National vote was a waste of time, they voted to give Jacinda mandate to govern alone.

That would explain a party vote swing in rural, but there was also a big rural swing to Labour in electorate votes as well.

BarTender: 
It will probably take until the next election or two for Nataonal to realise that appealing to the fundamentalist factions aren’t going to win you votes.
I suspect ACT will implode this term as with 10 MPs with even more extreme views David will struggle to keep them in line and one or two will pull a JLR style defection.

 

And Labour will be under immense pressure to deliver on their promises without raising taxes... which we all know needs to happen to pay for the society we all want to live in.

I'm over policy discussion if it can't be attributed to a vision about what that actually means, i.e. what does the society we want to live in look like... Everything I have seen both major parties do looks like things are trending massively in the wrong direction for not only affordability of living but accessibility, both huge influencers for quality of life. 

Yeah I totally agree National need a do-over of their vision and strategy. I'm a capitalist at heart but was never going to vote for a party that got so off-message they let their deputy skirt the rabbit hole with a covid conspiracy. We can all pretend that didn't happen, but it did lol. The problem for me is even with a new disciplined vision, Brownlee has to go otherwise I will never take National seriously. So possibly Judith has to go too - the classic political game of 'get the deputy to say the crazy thing' could well have happened here.

I guess the results show for the party base those tactics aren't a huge deal, but it feels like they are a dying breed and a bar has been set for moral leadership in this country.. National would be wise to wake up and adapt.

freitasm:

 

A bit empty...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice shot of Clark on screen with snacks for the press.

:)

What the hell was Kelvin Davis thinking with that awful dirge ?

I liked TV1's coverage with John and Hilary, over at TV3 was Paddy Gower on crack ?

Maori Tv was meh.

RNZ had the content but the video presentation was awful.

Labour has some talented MPs, but even with the huge victory, past experience raises the question of whether they can fill their cabinet posts with enough competent people. So why should they not look outside the Labour party for the very best Ministers, such as Tracey Martin? Is this even possible under our system? Can the PM choose anyone she wants, regardless of their (lack of) political affiliation?