Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives her victory speech in the 2020 election. Photo / Dean Purcell
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives her victory speech in the 2020 election. Photo / Dean Purcell
For the first time in 18 years, the Labour Party has cleaned out every Bay of Plenty electorate party vote.
Labour obtained 110,600 votes in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Rotorua, Waiariki, Coromandel, Taupō and East Coast electorates - eclipsing the National Party which gained 40,000 votes fewer.
Theresults represented a dramatic reversal of fortunes from the previous election when National, with the exception of the Waiariki seat, dominated the party vote in the same electorates.
In the 2017 election, the Bay of Plenty region strongly supported National, with 123,400 votes for the party.
Since then, support for Labour has grown by 3300 in Rotorua while support for National fell nearly 8000.
In the Bay of Plenty electorate, support for Labour grew by 4600 while National plummeted 10,800. Tauranga had 4500 more votes for Labour and National dropped 8500.
Massey University's political commentator Professor Richard Shaw said voters chose Labour for their party vote because Ardern made them feel safe and they trusted her to continue to lead through the Covid response.
"For many of them, this would be the first time in their lives that they've ever voted for anyone other than National."
Shaw had received an email from a lifelong National supporter earlier this year saying Labour would get her party vote.
"I like the way that she shows us the best of ourselves," she told Shaw.
Massey University's political commentator Professor Richard Shaw. Photo / File
"A lot of old National people think she literally saved their lives," he said.
He said there was strategic voting where people split their vote and he suspected they would return to voting National in 2023.
National MPs holding onto electorate seats in the Bay of Plenty was a mixture of people liking what they saw MPs doing in the community and loyalty, he said.
Returning Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller likely gained respect as being more liberal as well as being upfront and well-known in the community, he said.
Muller said it was humbling to see people take a considered approach about what government they preferred and which local MP they supported.
"It talks to enough people in the community think you do a good job, regardless of their political persuasion."
"It's been a devastating result for the National Party."
Returning Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller. Photo / File
He said they needed to look at their policies, how they held the Government to account, and why the Prime Minister was so popular.
There were a lot of factors that went into this, he said, including Covid-19 and "the contrast to what we put on the table".
He said the people had voted for the continuation of Labour as well as a "particular way of doing politics".
Muller had "absolute confidence" support for National would return to the region but said the idea of people being life-long supporters was not an accurate reflection on how people voted.
"We've got to earn it back.
"We need to reflect deeply on how we found ourselves in this."
Labour list MP Angie Warren-Clark said the party's performance in a traditionally strong National area was a testament to a strong campaign and stable team.
She said people were "generally very pleased" with how the Government led people through the crisis.
She said she and Tauranga-based list MP Jan Tinetti were both focused on working for their community despite missing out by a small margin to their National competition.
During the campaign, she said the response from the public was one of a sense of security given by the Government.
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley said Labour's local support was "not just down to Jacinda-mania" as residents voted in a centre-left leaning group for councillors in the Tauranga City Council last year.
"The city has rapidly grown over the past 50 years, which means the values we hold as a community are constantly changing."
Most people he had spoken with who newly voted for Labour did so for various reasons, including avoiding a Labour-Greens coalition. He suspected new voters would remain loyal while Ardern was leader and her international popularity grew.
Labour List MP Angie Warren-Clarke. Photo / File
Local Labour support would likely continue as long as Warren-Clark and Tinetti secured high-profile roles in portfolios like education and social welfare, he said.
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty provincial president Darryl Jensen said as advocates for farmers, they were not political but "historically, we've had a preference of who we like to work with".
Jensen would not say which party this was but said the party vote for Labour was an endorsement for Ardern's handling of the pandemic.
He said farmers were "very grateful" for being seen as an essential service during the lockdown.
"It would've greatly affected our businesses and productivity if we hadn't been able to milk our cows, shear our sheep, pick our kiwifruit."
