15 Oct 2023

New Zealand votes for change, hands reins of power to National

From Morning Report, 8:10 am on 15 October 2023

New Zealanders have voted for change with National soon to be in charge of the country and ready to govern with ACT.

Labour's promised surge never happened and red seats fell across the country, flipping not only to National, but to the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.

New Zealand First is back in the house - set to take eight seats in Parliament.

For National leader Christopher Luxon it was a night of celebrations. 

Labour ended the night with 26.8 percent

National took back 21 electorate seats won by the Labour Party in 2020.

That included Mount Roskill, won by Carlos Cheung from former Labour Party minister Michael Wood.

Te Pāti Māori also won three seats Labour won last time, with Nanaia Mahuta the biggest casualty, losing her Hauraki-Waikato seat to New Zealand's soon to be youngest MP, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.

Wood and Mahuta are two major casualties who won't be returning to Parliament, alongside another former minister in Phil Twyford.

The Green Party added to Labour's pain, winning three electorate seats this year with Chloe Swarbrick retaining Auckland Central, while the capital turned Green with Wellington Central and Rongotai won by Tamatha Paul and Julie Anne Genter, respectively

As well as Epsom, ACT also won Tāmaki.