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JOHN BISSET / Stuff
National Rangitata candidate Megan Hands, left, and her campaign chair, Alison Driscoll, follow the results on election night in Timaru.
National Rangitata campaign chairwoman Alison Driscoll made no effort after the disastrous display of the party’s general election.
When it became clear that Jo Luxton was riding the wave of Labor success and turning National’s 6,331 majority in 2017 Rangitata into a 3,484-vote victory Saturday night, Driscoll admitted the result was “incredible” in a speech at the party’s function at Timaru’s. Landing Services Building.
Driscoll only praised the work of his Rangitata candidate Megan Hands, a belated replacement after Andrew Falloon’s resignation in July, saying “we have a ripper” and that “she’s been an absolute pleasure working with her and I’m just heartbroken.” .
“I know this party will come back bigger and better.
“We’ve gone into hiding tonight and there are a lot of people who really need to think hard about what they’ve done over the last two weeks because it’s our people that screwed us up. I’m sorry, it’s our people that have done this.
“We really, really need you to realize that and go home
“I think personally, and I don’t mean to be negative, but somehow the party needed a kick in the pants.”
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Driscoll said they needed to “go away and think a lot about how attached we are to those things that we believe in, how much they mean to us, how much it takes people to get out of their living rooms and go outside and make this happen.”
“We’ve been too lucky for too long. I think we grossly underestimate (Labor leader Jacinda) Ardern for everything she has.
“I think we grossly underestimate the fact how much the media and the Labor Party have completely simplified politics in this country in the last three years.
“It has become a popularity contest rather than an ideas contest and we urgently need to bring that back.
“I hate to think what we’re going to go through in the next three years before we get that opportunity again.
“So we have to figure it out and we have to get our friends and neighbors to feel like us, even though this time they checked the wrong box, we have to get them back for that is our challenge.”
