Bittersweet realisation of a dream for new MP Andrew Little

Andrew Little. Photo / Kenny Rodger

It was his long-held ambition, but new Labour list MP Andrew Little had mixed feelings about his first day at Parliament yesterday as his party licked its wounds and began the process of finding Phil Goff's successor.

Mr Little was one of four new Labour MPs and seven NZ First MPs who began their induction at Parliament yesterday.

Becoming an MP was something Mr Little had "considered since very early on" but he had also been determined to do "other things" before making his move.

Those other things included becoming the national secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union and president of the Labour Party itself.

On Saturday night Mr Little failed in his bid to wrest the New Plymouth seat from National's Jonathan Young and Labour suffered its worst defeat since the 1920s.

"It was certainly a sense of great privilege to be coming in on the list but it wasn't the sense of elation that I might have thought of years ago when I thought 'Yes, I want to commit to becoming an MP'."

His colleague Rino Tirikatene, who took the Te Tai Tonga seat from the Maori Party's Rahui Katene, was more upbeat about his first day.

"It was good. I walked confidently in there because I knew I'd earned my spot."

Mr Tirikatene, Mr Little and Labour's two other new MPs, Dunedin North's David Clark and Wigram's Megan Woods, spent the first part of yesterday in Labour's marathon caucus meeting but were let out early to attend their induction.

"It's like the first day of school so you're sort of bright-eyed and there's lots to take in," said Mr Tirikatene.

NZ First's Brendan Horan said the Parliamentary Service ran "a very professional induction" for him and his colleagues Andrew Williams, Tracey Martin, Richard Prosser, Barbara Stewart, Denis O'Rourke and Asenati Taylor.

The former television weatherman had no doubts about his ability to foot it in the parliamentary environment.