National Wins-Labour's Worst Election
Since 1922.
It's been a weird campaign compared to the last 10; dirty politics, Nicky Hager's book, Cameron Slater and his pal Judith Collins, the spy saga claiming that the NSA is collecting everything on the internet and telecom including this blog, Dot.com's moment of truth which boosted National's support even more, and so on. In fact Labour came out of this election squeaky clean but thoroughly defeated. The Greens fared better but still got it's support pruned.
The stats that were not available on our screen on the night were the proportion of those eligible to vote who actually voted. As it turns out 77+% voted which was better than 2011 (74+%) but it wasn't high which partially accounts for Labour's poor result. Still there are 300,000 specials yet to be counted and there may be a slight improvement to the losers' results.
Labour did have one great result. Maori voters in the Maori electorates did heed one Labour message which was to vote positive. They now have 6 of the 7 seats. It looks as though Maori have forgotten the FS&SBed Act which caused the biggest hikoi to parliament and formed the Maori Party, not to mention the market economics of Rogernomics that was introduced overnight and gutted the industries and jobs that employed thousands of Maori. Te Ururoa Flavell and the Maori Party did win Waiariki but again Labour's Waititi came second ahead of Internet-Mana. This achievement in all 7 Maori seats was in spite of what seems to be an even lower turnout than the general seats. Saddest of all was the loss of Hone Harawira in Taitokerau to Kelvin Davis. I voted for Te Ururoa in Waiariki and the Maori Party.
Well so much for the brief analysis. In the next parliament, the six Maori members in the Labour Caucus must play hardball. Nanaia Mahuta and Rino Tirikatene deserve a place on the front bench and spokes people of Maori Affairs, and other portfolios. They must not be treated like Helen Clark's Shrek The Sheep but must have a strong voice in policy and strategy. They can even work openly and collaborate with Te Ururoa on projects like Whanau Ora. They could also contribute a thing or two to their party about how to win votes.
