Just three years on from Jacinda Ardern’s phenomenal outright victory, New Zealand’s Labour government has collapsed, slumping to half its vote from 2020. It is on the verge of losing some of its safest seats and languishing behind in most of the Māori electorates. The centre-right National party has won, with Labour prime minister Chris Hipkins calling Christopher Luxon to concede defeat.
The National party and its libertarian coalition party, ACT, are in a strong position to form a government, with Luxon, a relative newcomer to politics, becoming the country’s next prime minister. With more than three-quarters of the vote counted, Labour’s vote was a shade higher than 26 per cent – meaning half of the caucus will be out. National is on 40 per cent, the Greens on 10 per cent, ACT on 9 per cent and the Māori Party on 2.5 per cent.
An interesting development is that the maverick populist Winston Peters, though politically resurrected and bringing a handful of MPs back with him into parliament, will not be relevant in the composition of the new government.
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