Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern waves to neighbours and media outside her house in Sandringham, Auckland on election night 2020. Photo / File
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern waves to neighbours and media outside her house in Sandringham, Auckland on election night 2020. Photo / File
The Labour Party has cleaned out every Bay of Plenty electorate party vote for the first time in 18 years.
In this year's election, Labour obtained 110,600 votes in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Rotorua, Waiariki, Coromandel, Taupo and East Coast electorates - eclipsing the National party which gained40,000 votes fewer.
The results represented a dramatic reversal of fortunes from the 2017 election when National, with the exception of the Waiariki seat, dominated the party vote in the same electorates.
At the time, the wider Bay of Plenty region strongly supported National with 123,400 votes for the party. Since then, support for Labour grew by 3300 votes in Rotorua while support for National fell by nearly 8000.
In the Bay of Plenty electorate, support for Labour grew 4600 while National plummeted by 10,800. Tauranga had 4500 more votes for Labour and National dropped 8500.
Massey University's political commentator Professor Richard Shaw said voters chose Labour for their party vote because Ardern made them feel safe and they trusted her to continue to lead through the Covid response.
"For many of them, this would be the first time in their lives that they've ever voted for anyone other than National."
Shaw referred to an email from a lifelong National supporter earlier this year who said Labour would get her party vote.
"I like the way that she shows us the best of ourselves," she wrote of Ardern to Shaw.
"A lot of old National people think she literally saved their lives," he said.
Shaw said there was strategic voting where people split their vote and he suspected they would return to voting National in 2023.
He said National MPs holding on to electorate seats in the Bay of Plenty was a mixture of people liking what they saw MPs doing in the community and loyalty.
He said Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller likely gained respect as being more liberal as well as being upfront and well-known in the community.
Rotorua MP Todd McClay. Photo / Andrew Warner
Among those National candidates who kept their electorate seats was Todd McClay, who won his fifth term as Rotorua MP on Saturday with 14,283 votes, only 1253 votes ahead of his closest rival, Labour candidate Claire Mahon.
When it came to party votes, National secured just 9638 party votes compared to Labour's 14,932.
McClay said 2020 had been a year unlike any other, which had required a lot of "air time" from Labour leader Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand's Prime Minister.
"It's probably natural that there would be a movement toward them," McClay said.
McClay said it was clear some voters were motivated by what had happened this year with Covid.
His focus now was to continue to work for his electorate and prove to those who voted for him that he deserved to be there.
He said tourism "will continue to struggle" and he will be looking at ways to create jobs in his electorate.
Rotorua Labour Electorate Committee chairman Phill Thomass
said: "I think it's an indication that the whole country is supportive and behind Jacinda's approach."
He said Labour may not have won all of the seats in electorates around the wider Bay of Plenty but they should be proud of their performance.
Thomass said he had been approached by people who were usually National voters but had switched their votes to Labour this year.
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty provincial president Darryl Jensen. Photo / File
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty provincial president Darryl Jensen said, as advocates for farmers, they were not political but "historically, we've had a preference of who we like to work with".
Jensen would not say which party this was, but said the party vote for Labour was an endorsement for Arden's handling of the pandemic.
He said farmers were "very grateful" for being seen as an essential service during the lockdown.
"It would've greatly affected our businesses and productivity if we hadn't been able to milk our cows, sheer our sheep, pick our kiwifruit."
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Bryce Heard said people were not forthcoming about how they voted but said, from anecdotal comments, the National party did not offer a better solution to the Covid response or an inspiring alternative set of policies.
He said he personally thought people were feeling vulnerable and confidence was still fragile due to the uncertainty surrounding Covid, "so staying with the Government was the safer option".
"Labour now has a mandate to put its own policies in place without the impediment of a coalition partner."
Returning Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller said it was humbling to see the public take a considered approach about what Government they preferred and which local MP they supported.
"It talks to enough people in the community think you do a good job, regardless of their political persuasion."
He said the overall results were concerning.
"It's been a devastating result for the National party."
He said they needed to look at their policies, how they held the Government to account, and why the Prime Minister was so popular.
There were a lot of factors that went into this, he said, including Covid-19 and "the contrast to what we put on the table".
He said the people had voted for the continuation of Labour as well as a "particular way of doing politics".
Labour list MP Angie Warren-Clark said her party's success was a testament to a strong campaign and stable team.
She said people were "generally very pleased" with how the Government led people through the crisis.
She and Tauranga-based list MP Jan Tinetti were both focused on working for their community despite missing out by a small margin to their National competition, Warren-Clark said.
