Outgoing Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says he’s still “digesting” the election results.
Saturday night saw National take home 38.99% of votes, compared to Labour’s 26.85%.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Hipkins said his party has an “important” job to do over the next few weeks.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re supporting the new Government to transition smoothly into office once it’s clear what that Government is going to look like and in the mean time, we’ve actually still got to hold the fort while they figure that out.
“And then we’ve got to transition ourselves smoothly into opposition, ready to hit the ground running straight away because actually we have an important job to do there as well.”
“We’ll be digesting the election result and of course we’ll be reflecting on what the election result tells us and we’ll begin the process of rebuilding towards a better outcome in 2026.”
Asked if anyone questioned Hipkins’ decision to stay on as leader at yesterday’s caucus meeting, he said it wasn’t a topic of conversation.
He was also asked if he’d throw his hat in the ring for leader in three months when the party votes. Hipkins said it’s “premature” to comment now.
“We don’t even know what the shape of the caucus is going to be yet, there are a number of seats across the country that currently sit on a very tight margin and the outcome of those will determine what the actual size and shape of our team is.”
“We need to know who’s in and who’s out and we don’t know that at this point.”
Hipkins also said he has no plans to quit politics, even if he doesn’t get voted in as leader again.
“As I said yesterday, I’ve made a commitment to my electorate, when I sign on to represent them and they give me the strong backing that they consistently have, I make a commitment for three years and I will honour that commitment and I’m very loyal and proud to be a member of the Labour Party.”
While we know Labour won’t be leading the next government, the country is still a few weeks away from knowing exactly which parties will be calling the shots for the next three years.
The official election result won’t be released for another couple of weeks, while special votes are collected and counted.
