Jubilant Labour candidate Emily Henderson after she was announced the winner of the Whangārei electorate when the final results came through. Photo / Tania Whyte
Labour's historic election night win has seen a red tide sweep over Northland, where the party now holds all three parliamentary seats for the first time.
In a major shock, Labour candidates Emily Henderson and Willow-Jean Prime have won the Whangārei and Northland electorates in final results of the 2020 general election released yesterday afternoon.
Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis holds on to his Te Tai Tokerau seat, meaning Labour now holds all three electorates in the region for the first time ever. The party also won the party vote in each electorate for the first time.
Both electorates were on a knife edge after the October 17 general election.
In Whangārei, incumbent National Party MP Dr Shane Reti won on the night over Labour's Henderson with 15,639, votes, compared to the first-time candidate's 15,475 for a slender 164-vote lead, the closest margin in the country. Reti won the seat in the 2017 election by 10,967 votes over Labour's Tony Savage.
And in Northland, incumbent National MP Matt King won 15,337 votes, 729 ahead of Willow-Jean Prime's 14,608. He had a 1389 majority in the 2017 general election over NZ First leader Winston Peters.
But after special votes were counted and the results released yesterday, in Whangārei, Henderson won 17,823 votes, compared to Reti's 17,392, for a 431-vote majority.
In the final party vote for Whangārei, Labour got 20,942 votes compared to National's 11,602.
In the Northland electorate, Prime got 17,066 votes compared to King's 16,903 for a 163-vote majority. But given the closeness of the margin, King has said he will go for a recount. In the party vote in Northland, Labour got 19,997 votes compared to National's 12,496.
The result is an historic shock. This is first time Labour has held both seats. It had only held Whangārei once, from 1972 to 1975, and last held Northland (then the Bay of Islands electorate) in 1938.
Henderson was weeding the garden at her Maungatapere home when a Labour party staffer rang to relay the good news just after 2pm yesterday.
Henderson received 17,823 votes, 431 more than Reti, who got 17,392 in the final count.
"Absolutely [it] came as a surprise. I did not dare hope. Election night was such a surprise, I was the most relaxed candidate in New Zealand on election night because I knew I wasn't gonna win,'' she said.
"I still didn't expect the final vote count to be more than 400. I thought Dr Reti would maintain his majority, one way or another. I thought I might narrow it a bit but I didn't think we would surpass it."
Social investment such as housing, school lunches and pushing the Kia Kaha infrastructure projects would be the Whangārei lawyer's priority for her electorate.
"Whangārei is a poor place, we have pockets of comfortableness but we are overall actually a poor place so my focus is on getting the Government's focus on getting us the social service investment we need, to correct the inequities we've got in our society, look after our most vulnerable.
"As part of that, I want that investment in Whangārei's infrastructure so we get our economy cranking and there are some obvious targets there that I am going to throw my weight behind, one way or another.
"We've got the mandate now to do what Labour wants to do which is, let's build good houses, let's make sure people have somewhere safe to live, something to eat, something to hope for."
The last time a Labour candidate won the Whangārei electorate was in 1972 — the year Henderson was born — and she said it was a "very long time coming".
"To be the candidate selling this Government was not hard compared to some other years. I think I've benefited hugely from the fact that Labour has proven so decisively what a bloody good Government they are."
Henderson acknowledged the work Reti did in the six years he'd been the Whangārei MP and is looking forward to working with him for the betterment of all in her electorate.
She flew to Wellington after the election to attend Labour's first caucus meeting and felt like "Charlie in the chocolate factory" with a backstage pass.
Henderson was asked by her family to contest the 2017 election but she declined as she wanted to have a tilt when her children were teenagers.
Although she was very political as a teenager, she decided in her 20s against venturing into that field because the old style of politics didn't really appeal to her.
"But what I saw over the last three years in terms of the way Jacinda Ardern manages those people, I felt like there's a change to politics, there's a change to what it means to be political, and it looks constructive now," she said.
Northland is now the country's most marginal seat, with a 163-vote margin. applications for any recounts have to be filed with a District Court by November 11.
Reti, who will return to Parliament because of his placing on National's party list - meaning the district has two MPs representing it in Parliament - acknowledged Labour winning the seat.
"I want to congratulate Labour and thank them for the contest of ideas during the campaign," he said.
"I also want to thank the more than 17,000 people who voted for me and let them know that while we were victors on the night, like many other electorates in the end we were a few hundred votes short.
"Now the results are in I look forward to continuing to serve the people of Whangārei as an MP based in Whangārei working hard to create jobs, starting the four lanes, establishing the marine dry dock and making sure our health services receive the funding that is required and that our DHB stays local."
King rang Prime to let her know he was seeking a judicial recount.
Prime recounted the call, saying: "He called to congratulate me on today's results and commiserations to him on the result. With him losing the seat it means he won't be in Parliament, whereas for me if I had of lost the seat I would still be in Parliament on the list so it is a big outcome for Matt.
"He did say to me that given how close our votes are he was going to call for a judicial recount, but he did want to explain to me it wasn't personal. It's just about the votes being so close and he felt that was something he should do.
"So I said to him 'I take it in the spirit in which you said it to me - it isn't personal, it is simply about the votes and the process'. I respect processes and so I will respect his decision to ask for that judicial recount and I will await the results."
NZME spoke to Prime in Moerewa, her hometown. The community - largely Māori - is almost entirely reliant on the nearby meatworks and forestry for employment.
News of her election as Northland's MP had clearly spread quickly. Those around the town shouted, waved and hollered congratulations to the new electorate MP.
She said the results were "the best news ever".
"It's something that I really hoped for and for it to actually be the result ... I was speechless."
She said it had been a six-year journey of hard work and campaigning in an electorate that had always been "blue".
"If it does flip again I still like the fact I've managed to close that margin. It puts me in a good position for 2023."
One-term MP King said he was "a bit gutted" to lose the historically safe National seat he'd put his heart and soul into for the past three years and was demanding a recount given the result was so close.
He was also disappointed for the staff who would lose their jobs at his Kerikeri office, and the hundreds of constituent cases they had been working on.
Although he had lost the seat, his personal vote had gone up by more than 1600 votes since 2017, making him one of the few National candidates to collect more votes this time than last.
He put the swing to Labour down to Covid-19.
"Sure, we made some missteps too, but Covid was the killer blow. We were shut down, we couldn't operate."
He had been reasonably confident his election night margin was big enough to carry him through the special votes, and with the final result so tight he would demand a recount.
"I need to know for sure," he said.
He didn't know what he would do next, though he was keen to try again in 2023 if the electorate wanted him.
"This was going to be my path for the foreseeable future — but that's the brutality of politics."
It had been a privilege to be Northland's MP for the past three years, he said.
King, who has been a farmer, a police officer, a private investigator and a Honda dealer, spent years trying to get into Parliament.
In the run-up to the 2020 election, King told the Advocate Northland had been overlooked by successive Governments because National believed it couldn't lose and Labour believed it couldn't win.
Cabinet minister Kelvin Davis, who holds the Te Tai Tokerau seat on the Māori roll, congratulated Prime and Henderson.
Davis said it was a historic achievement.
"I'm just absolutely stunned.
"It's testament to both their efforts throughout the campaign. People have just liked what they have seen in the last three years - Jacinda with a kind and compassionate message, and that Labour had a plan to get through Covid-19 and for the economic recovery," he said.
Northland Mayor John Carter, who held the Northland electorate seat for 24 years, described it turning Labour red as "astonishing". He had no further comment.
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