National Party leader Christopher Luxon says the results were 'very much as we expected'.
Video / Mark Mitchell
Winston Peters has called for NZ First, National and Act to all “get in a room together” to thrash out a new government, after the final election results yesterday confirmed him once again as the political “kingmaker”.
The final count, which included more than 600,000 special votes, saw National lose two seats compared with election night on October 14 and with it the slim one-seat majority it held with Act.
National leader Christopher Luxon told media shortly after the results were released yesterday afternoon he would “get cracking” - indeed, Peters told The Platform that Luxon had called him a mere two minutes after the final count was released.
Te Pāti Māori winning six electorates means Parliament will have a two-seat overhang, as they won more electorate seats than through their share of the party vote (3 per cent), with another seat to be added after the Port Waikato byelection making up a record 123 seats.
This means 62 seats would be needed by any of the parties to form a majority.
On the final results, National dropped from 50 seats on election night to 48, while Act remained on 11. This gave the two parties a combined 59 seats, meaning another three seats are needed for them to form a government.
This brings NZ First into the picture, which remained on the eight seats it recorded on election night. Together the three parties would have 67 seats, with another seat likely to be added with Andrew Bayly the favourite to win the Port Waikato byelection.
National leader Christopher Luxon talks to media after special votes are announced. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Theoretically, NZ First could form a government with Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, but Peters has long ruled out again working with Labour, which he reaffirmed yesterday.
Luxon said he could now focus on forming a “strong and stable government”, after weeks of separate backroom talks with Act and NZ First ahead of the final results.
“Now we can get cracking,” Luxon said.
He said he would work through the weekend on coalition negotiations but he could not guarantee completing those before the Apec gathering in the US, which starts on November 11. He has already confirmed he would miss the Pacific Islands Forum, which starts on November 9 in the Cook Islands.
“We are working constructively with both parties,” Luxon said.
He said he would not get into any discussion about details of the potential agreements nor any policy priorities.
“Each party has a different set of concerns. We are the major party.”
Peters said NZ First wanted negotiations to be conducted with urgency.
The NZ First leader said the most useful thing was for National, Act and NZ First to all get in the room together as opposed to having separate conversations.
“This is not my first negotiation, I’m only negotiating with one side, so to speak, not two and that’s why we can expedite this.”
Act leader David Seymour said he hoped the new government could be finalised within a “matter of days” or within a week.
Meanwhile, Te Pāti Māori recorded its best election result taking another two Māori electorate seats off Labour in Te Tai Tokerau and Tāmaki Makaurau, meaning they won six of the seven electorates.
Takutai Tarsh Kemp beat Labour’s Peeni Henare by just four votes, overturning what was a 495-vote deficit on election night.
Kemp told the Herald she was “humbled and overwhelmed” by the result, which she put down to Māori getting behind the movement of Te Pāti Māori.
In an even more stunning result, Te Pāti Māori’s Mariameno Kapa-Kingi gained a majority of 517 over Labour’s Kelvin Davis in Te Tai Tokerau, overturning a 487-vote deficit on election night.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told the Herald that Māori had turned away from Labour as they had not delivered, despite holding the largest Māori caucus in history.
Ngarewa-Packer said they would not accept the changes being proposed by right-wing parties, such as Act’s policy for a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi, adding they were in for a “disruptive period”.
She said they would pick up the phone if National came calling, but couldn’t confirm if they could work together.
Te Pāti Māori's Tāmaki Makaurau MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp on election night. Photo / Mike Scott
Henare has indicated he will seek a recount in Tāmaki Makaurau given the slim margin - while National is supporting a recount in the Auckland Labour stronghold of Mt Albert after Helen White saw her razor-thin margin shrink to just 20 votes, along with Nelson where Labour’s Rachel Boyack flipped the result to beat National’s Blair Cameron by just 29 votes.
Labour’s Phil Twyford, who trailed National’s Angee Nicholas in Te Atatū by just 30 votes, has come out ahead by 131.
All other seats have remained with the candidates who won them on October 14. National’s Vanessa Weenink is confirmed as Banks Peninsula’s MP after leading Labour’s Tracey McLellan by 83 votes on election night.
While National dropped two seats overall it also lost two electorate seats to Labour candidates, meaning veteran MP Gerry Brownlee will just scrape in on the list.
Labour remained on 34 seats, winning 17 electorates and with 17 list MPs.
The Green Party gained one seat to secure its best result, meaning Christchurch-based candidate Kahurangi Carter enters Parliament for the first time.
It added to strong electorate wins in Auckland Central, Wellington Central and Rongotai which Carter believed made the party’s success even more pronounced.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the result validated the “positive campaign” it ran.
Davidson said the strong results for Māori put Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori in a good position to advocate for Māori from Opposition.
“Just try and come for the Treaty, just try,” Davidson said in a message to the incoming National-led Government.
It was also her understanding that the next government wouldn’t have any MPs of Pasifika heritage. With Carter’s inclusion, half of the party’s caucus was either Māori or Pasifika.
“It’s shocking, it goes to the priorities of those political parties,” Davidson said of the absence of Pasifika representation.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party would be a “formidable opposition” as they work to “win back the confidence of more New Zealanders” over the next term.
Hipkins said he felt Labour had picked up some momentum over the campaign, as evidenced by on-the-day versus advance voting results. But the special votes appeared to reflect the advance voting.
He said there was some “clear vote-splitting” in the Māori electorates, with voters opting to give Labour their party vote and Te Pāti Māori their electorate vote.
Hipkins said he felt Labour had to reflect in particular on its loss of support in Auckland.
On his future as leader of the party, he said he still had a “bit of fight left in me” and was “absolutely committed to the Labour Party”.
The Electoral Commission reported 603,257 people cast special votes, equating to just over one-fifth of the nearly 2.9 million votes cast, and was up from 17 per cent in 2017 and 2020.
These include votes cast overseas, by people outside their electorate and anyone who needed to update their details at the time of voting.
Turnout overall was 78.2 per cent of enrolled voters, down from 81.5 per cent in 2020.
However, enrolment overall at 94.7 per cent was the highest since 2008.
There was a large turnout for Māori overall, with 567,012 voters on the Māori and general rolls, up from 535,472 in 2020 and 476,498 in 2017.
Michael Neilson is a political reporter based at Parliament in Wellington. He joined the Herald in 2018 and has covered social issues, the environment and Māori affairs.
