Barry Soper: The successes and failures of Labour's first six months

It's the first day of the second six months of the Labour-led Government's life.

Jacinda Ardern has gone from a state of shock after being declared as Prime Minister by Winston Peters, to such an extent she stumbled over the word "sincerely" when delivering the oath of allegiance to The Queen at her swearing in, to curtseying before her at Buckingham Palace last week.

The Labour MPs at the ceremony were also in a state of shock, but they shouldn't have been. Peters never had an appetite for dead rats.

National's still in a state of shock, along with what at the moment is their 43 per cent solid support base, that they're not sitting on the Treasury benches today.

Their supporters still feel they've been robbed and refuse to give Labour the benefit of the doubt, refusing to accept that less than 51 percent simply isn't good enough.

Labour's gone from its first 100 days in office where they at times appeared like student politicians, and where even Ardern only gave them seven out of ten, to at least giving the appearance of being more self-assured. But should they be?

They've had a rough few months with the drunken Youth Labour camp revelations where Ardern was kept in the dark, to the embarrassing blunders of their Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran, along with allowing themselves to be the blind eye of the Five Eyes countries when it came to condemning the misdeeds of Russia - not to forget the shivers they sent up the collective spine of business by the cancellation, without consultation, of all future offshore oil and gas exploration even though it'll cost billions and do nothing for climate change other than sending production offshore.

So they're the fails.

The success for the Labour luvvies would be the paid parental leave extension, the families package instead of tax cuts, lower winter power bills for the elderly, the inquiry into historic child abuse and their multiple handouts to students.

The fors and againsts tend to balance each other out, but the real tests are to come, starting with the Budget next month. Labour's been at pains to talk the Budget down, an old political ploy. Dampen expectation but deliver enthusiasm.

Three weeks after that they've got the Northcote byelection, a seat that's been comfortably held by National since 2005 but before that was Labour's.

The Greens are showing their annoyance with Labour by standing a candidate in the byelection, which means it'll stay with National.

And of course, after that Ardern will have her baby and the happiest man in this Government - Winston Peters - will step up to the plate as Prime Minister.