Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick says she is "incredibly stoked" at a cemented win, but was confident and had been getting on with the job since election night.
After today's special votes result, Swarbrick's Auckland Central win was widened to a 1068-vote margin, and put Greens ahead of Act asParliament's third largest party, even though they both have 10 seats.
Swarbrick said the extent of her win, like elections worldwide, was anything but expected.
"Six months ago when we were looking down the barrel of two mainstream polls which put us at third place and commentators taking the mickey out of the fact that this Green MP who was in third place was proposing to take it out and represent her local community. All I can say is I'm incredibly stoked."
She said it wasn't a matter of feeling nervous and sitting on the edge of her seat while watching the specials be counted, it was more about just getting on with the work.
She said the outcome of the special votes was a confirmation of the ability of a grassroots campaign to galvanise people.
"It was really lovely to double that margin and cement that lead.
"If people look at politics and they are disenchanted, then now more than ever there's an opportunity to organise and facilitate and bring about that change because we have proof of concept in this Auckland Central campaign."
In today's final results, the "yes" campaign in the cannabis referendum fell just short of a win.
Despite the result, Swarbrick said it was pleasing to have sparked a conversation about the need for fit-for-purpose drug laws in New Zealand.
"As a country we've come so far in understanding the need to reduce the harm of drugs by bringing them out of the shadows, and I remain committed to working for a drug harm reduction approach to drugs in the future".
She said the fact the cannabis referendum was that close to winning showed New Zealand had coming a really long way in acknowledging drug harms exist.
"Whether it's cannabis use being forced into the black market, particularly in Northland where people are experiencing a huge amount trouble as a result of meth, whether it is the need to legalise festival drug checking services ... all of these issues remain on the table and those are the things I will keep fighting for. "
One of the first tasks on Swarbrick's to-do list is setting up her new office, which will include moving in a treasured hoarding tagged by her artist friend James Hunt.
