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Labor’s Priyanca Radhakrishnan won Maungakiekie with a majority of 635 votes over National’s Denise Lee. Labor’s Willow-Jean Prime also won Northland with a 163-vote majority over National’s Matt King.
Both Radhakrishnan and Prime were already coming to Parliament on the Labor list, so there is no change there. But Emily Henderson of Labor, who is currently not a MP, won Whangarei, ousting National incumbent Shane Reti.
Dr. Reti is high on National’s list, so he will remain an MP, but Lee and King will not return to Parliament. As these two leave, Maureen Pugh, who was inclined to lose her place in Parliament, will remain a member of the National roster.
“Denise has worked incredibly hard since entering Parliament and it will be very sad to see her go. She is passionate about the people of Maungakiekie and has worked tirelessly to make her community a better place,” Collins said Friday.
Lee is the MP who wrote an email during the election campaign criticizing national leader Judith Collins, which was leaked to Newshub. Collins said the leaked email cost the party 5 percent of the vote in internal polls.
“The same can be said for Matt King at Northland, although I acknowledge that Matt will seek an accounting of Northland’s result. We will support him in that process,” added Collins.
The poor result for National comes when Vice President Gerry Brownlee confirmed that he will not seek reelection in office when the caucus meets next week.
“Today, with the release of the special vote count, we have our final numbers. Our smaller team of 33 is now ready to focus on the work that lies ahead,” said Brownlee, who lost her seat at Ilam to Sarah Pallett, from Labor, in a statement. on Friday.
“My focus, going forward, will be to rebuild National’s base in Christchurch and represent our voters there. Therefore, I will not seek a new deputy leader designation when the Caucus meets on Tuesday.”
Collins thanked Brownlee for his “dedication to his colleagues” and to the party.
“While it is disappointing to say goodbye to more MPs, those who have been confirmed in Parliament for another term are excited about the prospect of rolling up their sleeves and continuing the important work of holding government to account,” Collins said.
“I have had meetings with all the national MPs. We have discussed their abilities and ambitions, and I look forward to announcing the new National portfolio assignments next week.”
Collins said National owes the people of New Zealand to provide a “strong and effective” Opposition.
Ardern, who was sworn in as Prime Minister by the Governor-General on Friday along with her all-Labor cabinet and new ministers, smiled as she spoke about Labor’s new achievements during her first post-cabinet press conference since winning the election.
“It’s great to see Dr. Emily Henderson eliminate Whangarei and join our 65-member caucus. I also want to congratulate Willow-Jean Prime who won Northland and Priyanca Radhakrishnan who eliminated Maungakiekie,” Ardern said.
“It is an extraordinarily big day for Priyanca in particular, who this morning joined the executive and this afternoon won her seat. I am also enormously proud of our candidates in the north.”
Radhakrishnan is the first woman of Indian origin to become a minister in New Zealand.
“As I said on election night and many times since then, we will be the Government of all New Zealanders, among other things because we must ensure that we represent everyone who elected us, be it city seats, rural seats, general seats or Maori seating, “Ardern said.
“Today I reminded Cabinet that the honor of serving comes with enormous responsibility. We take nothing for granted as we lead the team of 5 million for the next three years. There are significant challenges we must overcome together, but I am sure we have the team to do it and it’s great to be able to officially start now. “
The Maori Party has won an additional seat after special votes that give it two overall seats in Parliament, but Ardern ruled out giving them a deal as it did with the Greens.
“No, look, the agreements we intend to undertake, cooperative or otherwise, have already been formed. Now we are focused on moving forward with government affairs.”
Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson have been given ministerial roles outside of Cabinet, as part of a ‘cooperation deal’ that the Labor Party offered them despite its majority.
