By 3news.co.nz staff
The Labour Party has lost nine MPs after yesterday’s general election. It went from 33.99 percent support in 2008 to 27.13 percent in 2011.
Labour's campaign spokesman Grant Robertson joined The Nation from Wellington to discuss what went wrong for the party.
He says the party on the whole is disappointed to lose good MPs like Kelvin Davis and Carmel Sepuloni, who he really hopes will make a return in the future.
But at the same time Mr Robertson says Labour is bringing in more beneficial MPs, naming Andrew Little, Rino Tirikatene, Megan Woods and David Clark to make their mark on New Zealand.
“The values of the Labour Party are strong and enduring; we’ve got issues to fight on for the next three years.
“We’ve got a good policy platform and took some of the hard decisions this campaign.
“One of the things about this campaign is we set the agenda with superannuation, and capital gains tax, so we can build on those policies.”
The Nation’s political commentator, Colin James, says these were policies for 2014, not right now.
“They are issues we need to deal with now,” says Mr Robertson. “I think most New Zealanders understand to make superannuation sustainable, we need to talk about it right now, and doing what Key has done and put it in the too hard basket is not good enough for the future of New Zealand.
“I’m really proud we got those issues out on the table.”
Last night Labour leader Phil Goff said he would discuss his future with caucus.
“We’ve got to give Phil the space to make that announcement. I’m really proud of the campaign he has run. He has been strong and clear. I think New Zealanders have seen a Phil that we in the caucus know.”
He says the caucus needs to work out the process from here while giving Mr Goff dignity and respecting his contribution to the party.
Looking at why Labour lost the political battle, Mr Robertson says elections are not won and lost in the campaign period, saying “you have to look at the whole three years”.
“New Zealand has been facing a real difficult time with the financial crisis and the earthquakes.
“And we were fighting against history. New Zealanders don’t tend to chuck out a government after three years.”
He says the Labour Party is a “broad church”.
“We can run a government with a lot of views in it.”
Mr Robertson says the so-called ‘teacup tapes’ scandal was hugely frustrating in the way it dominated the media.
“It was hard to get any discussion of policies put out. And in a shortened campaign, we had a lot of policy to get across.”
3 News