With a majority of votes counted it’s clear that Kris Fa’afoi is going to be the next Labour MP for Mana. We’re sure Kris will show his mettle in standing up for the people of Porirua and Mana in Parliament.
All the best Kris. Show those Nats what you’re made of.
Electorate Number: 21
Final: Yes
Polling Places Counted: 44 of 44 (100.0%)
Votes Counted: 22,387
Less than 6 votes taken in Polling Places: 0
Special Votes: 1,352
Leading Candidate: FAAFOI, Kris (LAB)
Majority: 1,080
National gained as a percentage but low turn out. ~65% of the people who voted in the general election and it’s usually the left that don’t get out to vote.
1080 is quite appropriate. Hugely toxic result for Labour and seat warmer Kris.
This was declared by Phil Goff as a referendum on the government and the people have well and truly spoken.
Congratulations to Kris and Hekia. Tonights two big winners
Hardly toxic for Labour, Goff or Kris. This is a Labour win regardless of any other spin. Key’s toxic reputation as the man who sold NZ to Warner Bros, who is always relaxed when he discovers his Cabinet Ministers rorting the system, who appears in NZ from his home in Hawaii on occasions that get him a photograph as he smiles, waves, scuttles and runs to escape any hard work is beginning to tell on NZ voters.
Wait until the truth about the depth of the Wong rorts comes into the public and then watch for a referendum on the corruption that is this NACT government.
Talk about pathetic. Oh yes the Mana voters in what is generally a very pro-left/Labour seat absolutely rejected the Key government. You’re dreaming and I’m so sick of both the left and right that get excited over every political scandal who really believe that makes a real shift in the polls. It rarely does.
And that post is typical of the divide between some people on the left and the rest of New Zealand. Its the same fucking denial half of the political right had in regards to Helen Clark.
GC says “Its the same fucking denial …. ” And I say “rubbish”. It’s quite clear that this government has no policy but to repeat the past. And the major problems ahead, economic and ecological, require courage and vision. The situation is truly scary and nothing like the Clark years.
The party will have to throw everything in behind him now. He’s a first-time MP in opposition in what must now be seen as a reasonably marginal seat, with no more than 12 months (possibly as little as six) to persuade people to vote for him again. Tough ask, and should light a fire under the Labour party.
As for Matt McCarten getting beat by Jan Logie: this will be spun as the end of the left, but that simply misunderestimates the campaign strategy, which was: put up lots and lots of billboards with McCarten’s face and the words “$15 minimum wage” and raise a big media stink. Achieved.
Another reason for why he needs to work hard: if the party vote in electorates in Mana (2008, tonight) remains close, national wins and forms the government. We need to win electorates like this by more than 6% in order to win overall.
Raise Matt’s profile and the profile of the Unite campaign. It worked. He got on the nightly news and the papers a bunch of times. The tone may have been “crazy old Matt, pulling stunts again”, but that don’t matter. The words “$15 minimum wage” all over that reporting aren’t pitched at the press gallery and commentariat.
(Should be noted that I have nothing to do with the campaign, and don’t actually know what the point was as a matter of strategy — this is just my read on it as someone who cares a lot about this sort of thing.)
The result came in just after 8.30pm but there are still 1352 special votes to be counted meaning it could be 10 days before Faafoi is assured of a seat in Parliament.
It’s a safe Labour seat, so National did really well. Just as in Mt Albert, the Labour win was a foregone conclusion, yet such fluster and panic. Labour could have red ribboned a donkey, and it still would have romped home.
Well done Kris, and well done National, still a good result.
He leaves the West Coast so he can turn up at Hekia Parata’s party, and says –
“It’s a very serious situation, and really our hearts are with those miners’ families tonight, notwithstanding the celebrations that are taking place in the National camp.”
Does he have any idea how fucking stupid that sounds?
I expect him to shut the fuck up about those miners if he can’t bear to mention them without reference to party politics.
ps (while you’ve got your dictionary handy) in future, when discussing the clumsy use of language by smug idiots in a patronising tone at a later date, you might want to look up “redundant” at some subsequent time.
If Fa’afoi wins the election after the specials, perhaps he could shift his electorate office to Cannons Creek. Because, overall, the rest of the electorate wanted Hekia Parata as their MP.
In other news my breakfast this morning would be nothing but a healthy glass of juice if I weren’t about to fry a pile of eggs and roe, Paul Holmes would be an awesome tv presenter if he didn’t talk absolute bullshit 99% of the time, and Coldplay are just brilliant apart from the music, the lyrics, and the posturing tit.
Goff will resign the day after next years election – And after an interval just long enough to satisfy decency, will quietly take up a seat on the board of directors, of some, or the other, very prestigious company.
Wille Laban was a very popular local MP, the turnout was low, events on the West Coast ovvershadowed the voting, and the media did it’s absolute best to jack up a “shock” result by portraying Fa’afoi as the principle carpetbagger and undeserving “parachute” candidate. Given all that, it seems to me the Labour campaign had to be a safety first one designed to limit the chance of an error that would have given the right wing media an opening to launch an all out attack on Fa’afoi. All in all, a tricky shoal safely navigated by Labour. One would assume come the general election Kris Fa’afoi will substantially increase this majority.
Having said all that, Labour probably could have done a bit better – Connor Roberts should be put in charge of Labour’s 2011 election campaign, the Wellington Labour “establishment” is clearly lacking the dynamism and organisational nous of the Auckland Labour party machine.
To my mind, McCarten’s contrarian egocentricism achieved nothing other than to dilute the anti-government message and make the left look weak. Pretty much par for the course for him. Politically, he was a loser in the Alliance and politically he is still a loser now. He does great stuff in the Unite union, he should stick to that.
While Conor is very good, the architect of Mayor Brown’s win was Andrew Beyer (see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4362045/Rush-of-early-votes-in-Mana)
Andrew was a key player in the Mana campaign as you’d expect.
Also when you dismiss the “Wellington Labour “establishment”” you should be careful not to inadvertantly include some of the Wellingtonians who have proven themselves on this campaign.
This was Chris Flatt’s first campaign as general secretary of Labour and he showed himself to be a tireless on the ground campaigner. Shane Laulu, the campaign manager, is a porirua Labour stalwart and proved himself to be good enough for election in his own right – one to watch in the 2013 local elections perhaps? And Fa’afoi’s campaign press secretary Deborah Mahuta was seriously classy. Ran a brilliant operation. Credit where credit is due, eh?
Hekia effectively had a campaign office in the electorate for 2 years yet her vote FELL. This is a good result for Kris (and Shane, Chris and Deborah).
From the Greens perspective we are really happy with the result
In the last week of the campaign we were getting a lot of feedback that potential voters of ours were switching to Kris because of the worry about the Nats getting in.
This result would have been 10% party vote in a General Election. We are now very well placed in Mana for next year with an excellent well respected candidate in Jan Logie
Actually Lew, if more of the electorate – say 85-90% – had have voted, we would have got a more accurate picture of whom the electorate wanted. And that’s always my preference, I’m wondering why those who didn’t vote stayed at home, and wondering how many who did vote voted for the party the candidate was aligned to rather than the person who they wanted to represent them
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By Jamie Tahana of RNZ Pacific Taiwan suffered two major diplomatic blows in the Pacific this week with both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati severing their ties in favour of China. In just four days, Taiwan’s diplomatic allies fell from 17 to 15, further isolating the island as Beijing ...
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Following serious allegations emerging online, episode two of New Zealand Today has been removed from ThreeNow along with all relevant clips. Mediaworks have removed episode two of Guy Williams’ comedy series New Zealand Today from its streaming platform ThreeNow after being informed that there were serious allegations involving a person briefly ...
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Christchurch City Councillor Deon Swiggs has identified himself as the person at the centre of a complaint of inappropriate behaviour, but denies he has done anything wrong. ...
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New Zealand businesses will benefit from tax breaks worth at least $80 million over five years, to encourage them to spend more on research and innovation. ...
Nerds, rejoice. The day of reckoning is finally upon us, with the release of the data from the 2018 census. So what are some of the interesting facts and figures?Forget about how badly this Census was botched. Forget about how there are concerns over how accurate the response data is, ...
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In our latest local elections 2019 race briefing (read the rest here), Don Rowe looks at the two horse race to control the tourism capital of New Zealand.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Where?Queenstown, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Foreign affairs and trade Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern to take climate change stage in ...
The Government has included two small tax changes with its 32 page 'Economic Plan' that paints a big picture for economic and wellbeing transformation. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simone Casey, Research Associate, Future Social Service Institute, RMIT University In all Australia’s capital cities, average share-house rents in the inner suburbs (where jobs are concentrated) leave people without enough money for food and other basics, new research shows. This research, for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Lenten, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe University Tonight is the AFL’s annual night of nights, the red-carpet spectacular known as the Brownlow Medal vote count. The Brownlow is awarded to the season’s “fairest and best” player. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gianluca Demartini, Associate professor, The University of Queensland The information we encounter online everyday can be misleading, incomplete or fabricated. Being exposed to “fake news” on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can influence our thoughts and decisions. We’ve already ...
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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Indonesia to send contaminated recycling back to NZ, LAWA report shows water quality dropping at more sites than not, and Spark Sport suffers harsh weekend.Shipping containers full of contaminated recycling could be shipped back to New Zealand, Anna Whyte from One News reported ...
Solomon Islands and Kiribati last week dramatically switched diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to China, a shift with possibly wide-ranging implications writes Stephen Hoadley of the University of Auckland. ...
Jacinda Ardern has a busy agenda for her second trip to the annual leaders' week, not least a high-profile sit-down with US President Donald Trump. ...
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Until our mental health system gets its promised overhaul, we need to find cost-effective and creative ways for mental health professionals to increase their awareness across all areas of diversity. ...
Two important World Cup contests played out on Saturday night; one of which has consequences not just for this tournament in Japan, but possibly the next one in France, too. ...
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Congratulations Kris 
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Obviously not enough people out voting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana_(New_Zealand_electorate)
Labour 46%
Greens 7%
Matt 4%
National 42%
2k8
Lab 53%
Green 7%
National 35%
National gained as a percentage but low turn out. ~65% of the people who voted in the general election and it’s usually the left that don’t get out to vote.
1080 is quite appropriate. Hugely toxic result for Labour and seat warmer Kris.
This was declared by Phil Goff as a referendum on the government and the people have well and truly spoken.
Congratulations to Kris and Hekia. Tonights two big winners
But Key is glowing in the polls, Labour can’t get any traction on him at all, or barely. Key has the X Factor for some reason, the people LURVE him.
you love him. he gives you a funny feeling and you’re not quite sure what to make of it. eh tanz?
for what’s worth – national is polling below what labour was this time in the first term.
Wonder how Parata will do once they announce whose houses will be bulldozed for the expressway…
Hardly toxic for Labour, Goff or Kris. This is a Labour win regardless of any other spin. Key’s toxic reputation as the man who sold NZ to Warner Bros, who is always relaxed when he discovers his Cabinet Ministers rorting the system, who appears in NZ from his home in Hawaii on occasions that get him a photograph as he smiles, waves, scuttles and runs to escape any hard work is beginning to tell on NZ voters.
Wait until the truth about the depth of the Wong rorts comes into the public and then watch for a referendum on the corruption that is this NACT government.
Talk about pathetic. Oh yes the Mana voters in what is generally a very pro-left/Labour seat absolutely rejected the Key government. You’re dreaming and I’m so sick of both the left and right that get excited over every political scandal who really believe that makes a real shift in the polls. It rarely does.
And that post is typical of the divide between some people on the left and the rest of New Zealand. Its the same fucking denial half of the political right had in regards to Helen Clark.
GC says “Its the same fucking denial …. ” And I say “rubbish”. It’s quite clear that this government has no policy but to repeat the past. And the major problems ahead, economic and ecological, require courage and vision. The situation is truly scary and nothing like the Clark years.
maybe the parachuted lier did not lie good enuf to get the necessaty extra votes.
The party will have to throw everything in behind him now. He’s a first-time MP in opposition in what must now be seen as a reasonably marginal seat, with no more than 12 months (possibly as little as six) to persuade people to vote for him again. Tough ask, and should light a fire under the Labour party.
As for Matt McCarten getting beat by Jan Logie: this will be spun as the end of the left, but that simply misunderestimates the campaign strategy, which was: put up lots and lots of billboards with McCarten’s face and the words “$15 minimum wage” and raise a big media stink. Achieved.
L
Absolutely right on McCarten, Lew. He used the by-election to achieve his aims, and well done to him.
Labour will be disappointed with the result, but should be nonetheless pleased Kris won. Now it’s up to Kris to show he’s got the right stuff.
Another reason for why he needs to work hard: if the party vote in electorates in Mana (2008, tonight) remains close, national wins and forms the government. We need to win electorates like this by more than 6% in order to win overall.
2005: nat/lab 50/31
2008: 43/36
tonight: 47/41~
Lew, what was the goal with that strategy in mind? I can’t see it.
Raise Matt’s profile and the profile of the Unite campaign. It worked. He got on the nightly news and the papers a bunch of times. The tone may have been “crazy old Matt, pulling stunts again”, but that don’t matter. The words “$15 minimum wage” all over that reporting aren’t pitched at the press gallery and commentariat.
(Should be noted that I have nothing to do with the campaign, and don’t actually know what the point was as a matter of strategy — this is just my read on it as someone who cares a lot about this sort of thing.)
L
Having talked to Matt on Thursday, That is exactly what his strategy was.
It worked really really well.
From Stuff
The result came in just after 8.30pm but there are still 1352 special votes to be counted meaning it could be 10 days before Faafoi is assured of a seat in Parliament.
Another performing monkey on the Labour benches.
DTB has a valid point for fafoi to work hard over the next 12 months.
I expect him to have his house purchased by next week.
Congrats Kris
You impress me as a really deep compassionate intelligent PI. Do not let the palagis upset you by their insistence that you be loud and abrasive.
And shout over the top of your opponents so that they can’t be heard.
Congratulations Kris Faafoi.
Well actually, we would far better be served by a loud and abrasive Pasifikan than some brown chump in a suit or a silently humble bench warmer…IMHO
All the best Kris. Show those Nats what you’re made of.
Fuck the nats. Show us all.
mad props bro !!!
It’s a safe Labour seat, so National did really well. Just as in Mt Albert, the Labour win was a foregone conclusion, yet such fluster and panic. Labour could have red ribboned a donkey, and it still would have romped home.
Well done Kris, and well done National, still a good result.
Indeed, the unexpectectly small margin is very surprising.
The elections in 12 months should be very interesting, with labour campaining very hard to save face and vote.
John Key, not classy, not classy at all.
He leaves the West Coast so he can turn up at Hekia Parata’s party, and says –
“It’s a very serious situation, and really our hearts are with those miners’ families tonight, notwithstanding the celebrations that are taking place in the National camp.”
Does he have any idea how fucking stupid that sounds?
Not sure which is more embarrassing; the unfathomable callousness or the genuine possibility that he doesn’t know what “notwithstanding” means.
I’d recommend that in future you look at a dictionary in future.
But for your sake:
notwithstanding [ˌnɒtwɪθˈstændɪŋ -wɪð-]
prep
(often immediately postpositive) in spite of; despite
conj
(subordinating) despite the fact that; although
Honestly i’m not sure what you expect of him anyway. That he can’t enjoy the election results AND give a damn?
Indeed, he should be camped outside the mine, doing little helpful other then “wave and smile”.
Damned if you try, damned if you don’t.
What do I expect from him?
I expect him to shut the fuck up about those miners if he can’t bear to mention them without reference to party politics.
ps (while you’ve got your dictionary handy) in future, when discussing the clumsy use of language by smug idiots in a patronising tone at a later date, you might want to look up “redundant” at some subsequent time.
If Fa’afoi wins the election after the specials, perhaps he could shift his electorate office to Cannons Creek. Because, overall, the rest of the electorate wanted Hekia Parata as their MP.
Yep, apart from those people who didn’t vote for me and voted for the other guy, I won much?
Particularly classy bit of “if only those stupid bludgers didn’t vote” fantasism on yer blog, Dave.
L
Nice one dave.
In other news my breakfast this morning would be nothing but a healthy glass of juice if I weren’t about to fry a pile of eggs and roe, Paul Holmes would be an awesome tv presenter if he didn’t talk absolute bullshit 99% of the time, and Coldplay are just brilliant apart from the music, the lyrics, and the posturing tit.
Congratulations to Kris.
Labour – are you paying attention to this?
knock knock
who’s there?
hugh
Hugh’s on first.
hugh appear to be unfamiliar with this format…
If Goff gave a shit about anything other than his own personal ambitions he’d resign immediately.
Goff will resign the day after next years election – And after an interval just long enough to satisfy decency, will quietly take up a seat on the board of directors, of some, or the other, very prestigious company.
Mission accomplished!
Mark my words.
G 😀 FF for PM 2 😀 11 ! ! !
I’m guessing Goff will humbly accept a long-service knighthood if one is offered in time.
Sir Philip would be very clear that he was only receiving the honour on behalf of the ‘little people’ who have supported him though.
Someone was asking what Matt was trying to achieve in the by-election.
In his own words from this morning’s Herald:
“I hope my message to Labour got through- that they can’t take their supporters for granted and must stand for something that isn’t National-lite.
If it did, then taking three weeks being a carpetbagger in Mana was worth it.”
Wille Laban was a very popular local MP, the turnout was low, events on the West Coast ovvershadowed the voting, and the media did it’s absolute best to jack up a “shock” result by portraying Fa’afoi as the principle carpetbagger and undeserving “parachute” candidate. Given all that, it seems to me the Labour campaign had to be a safety first one designed to limit the chance of an error that would have given the right wing media an opening to launch an all out attack on Fa’afoi. All in all, a tricky shoal safely navigated by Labour. One would assume come the general election Kris Fa’afoi will substantially increase this majority.
Having said all that, Labour probably could have done a bit better – Connor Roberts should be put in charge of Labour’s 2011 election campaign, the Wellington Labour “establishment” is clearly lacking the dynamism and organisational nous of the Auckland Labour party machine.
To my mind, McCarten’s contrarian egocentricism achieved nothing other than to dilute the anti-government message and make the left look weak. Pretty much par for the course for him. Politically, he was a loser in the Alliance and politically he is still a loser now. He does great stuff in the Unite union, he should stick to that.
While Conor is very good, the architect of Mayor Brown’s win was Andrew Beyer (see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4362045/Rush-of-early-votes-in-Mana)
Andrew was a key player in the Mana campaign as you’d expect.
Also when you dismiss the “Wellington Labour “establishment”” you should be careful not to inadvertantly include some of the Wellingtonians who have proven themselves on this campaign.
This was Chris Flatt’s first campaign as general secretary of Labour and he showed himself to be a tireless on the ground campaigner. Shane Laulu, the campaign manager, is a porirua Labour stalwart and proved himself to be good enough for election in his own right – one to watch in the 2013 local elections perhaps? And Fa’afoi’s campaign press secretary Deborah Mahuta was seriously classy. Ran a brilliant operation. Credit where credit is due, eh?
Hekia effectively had a campaign office in the electorate for 2 years yet her vote FELL. This is a good result for Kris (and Shane, Chris and Deborah).
From the Greens perspective we are really happy with the result
In the last week of the campaign we were getting a lot of feedback that potential voters of ours were switching to Kris because of the worry about the Nats getting in.
This result would have been 10% party vote in a General Election. We are now very well placed in Mana for next year with an excellent well respected candidate in Jan Logie
Actually Lew, if more of the electorate – say 85-90% – had have voted, we would have got a more accurate picture of whom the electorate wanted. And that’s always my preference, I’m wondering why those who didn’t vote stayed at home, and wondering how many who did vote voted for the party the candidate was aligned to rather than the person who they wanted to represent them
“McCarten’s contrarian egocentricism achieved nothing other than to dilute the anti-government message”
What are you smoking Sanctuary? The Unite campaign WAS the anti-government message.
Quod Erat Demonstratum.
nice one kris.
dont blow it.