David Shearer was in a relaxed, jovial mood when I went to meet him less than 24 hours after his resounding victory in the Mt Albert by-election. He apologised for answering the door whilst still eating his lunch – but after a steady stream of media calls since early morning, I could hardly blame him.
He confessed to having celebrated “in moderation” on election night – a display of the same kind of quiet control and reasonableness that has characterised his whole campaign.
Playing it safe certainly paid off for Shearer and Labour: his 63 percent win had National scurrying for the hills, with Melissa Lee gaining a mere 17 percent of the vote – much less than anyone was expecting.
Shearer wouldn’t be drawn to comment on Lee’s campaign in any depth, but says he has been thrilled with his own “Labour machine”: “We ran a campaign where we set out to listen to people, and then to understand what they wanted. And it was a really conscious decision.”
He says he is committed to building on those relationships: “It behoves me to now go back to those people, and engage with them in a much more meaningful way out of the glare of a by-election, and see what I can do more substantively for them.”
The challenge for Shearer will be to do this while in opposition. He accepts this might be difficult, but thinks it will at least give him a strong mandate to speak out and highlight issues of concern, chiefly with regard to the Waterview Connection and the supercity plans. He talks about wanting to protect “communities under siege”, and laughs off my suggestion that he might be treating this too much like a Baghdad battleground. This is a different kind of fight, he says – but still one in which many people’s livelihoods are at stake.
Shearer says he is “super excited” about his first day in Parliament on Tuesday – in much the same way a small child might be excited about Christmas. But he has no grand expectations just yet. “I’m under no illusions that I’m going to be at the bottom of the class!” he says. “In fact, Darren Hughes, the whip, more or less told me that. He said, ‘Enjoy Saturday because after that I basically own you’.”
Despite that, Shearer already seems to have his own vision for Labour’s future. “The tide has turned,” he claims, and repeats the metaphor no less than three times during our interview. He is heartened by the party’s energy, and wants to capitalise on some of the new, young talent that this by-election has been identified.
Can this be done in time to give Labour a shot at the 2011 general election? Shearer thinks so. He says the party’s policies will be “refreshed, changed, possibly moving in new directions.” However, he will give little away as to his own personal ambitions in Parliament. Given his previous work with the United Nations, he has much to contribute to foreign policy, but says he will go wherever party leader Phil Goff wants his input most.
I get the sense that David Shearer has loftier aspirations that he is keeping quiet about – but only time will tell. For now, if he keeps to his word, he will serve the Mt Albert electorate well, and do predecessor Helen Clark proud.
In fact, it seems that she is already pleased. As I’m leaving, Shearer shows me the text message he received from her, congratulating him on his win. It says: “Savour the moment – Helen.”
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I can’t leave this blog without pondering Melissa Lee’s future. She let herself down many times during the campaign, but the National Party is just as much to blame for her poor result – providing her with woefully little in the way of information and support. She had just as dedicated a team of campaigners in the electorate as Shearer did, but they were missing a vital link to Wellington.
Several commentators have said that this will be the end of her political career; that she won’t survive the 2011 election. I’m not so sure. Over the past six weeks she’s shown herself to be extremely determined and resilient. With some time off to reflect and evaluate, I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes back fighting. It won’t be in this electorate (or perhaps any other), but provided National doesn’t abandon her again, she still has the same potential they saw in her when they pushed her up the ranks last year.
To read more from Kim Choe's blog 'Mt Albert: Living Local' click here.