Carmel Sepuloni has been selected as Deputy Prime Minister.
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed that Sepuloni’s been selected as his deputy. Kelvin Davis will continue to be Labour deputy leader.
Hipkins will front a press conference at 3pm.
Asked earlier if she was the new deputy, Sepuloni replied; “I’m feeling very humbled.”
Labour MP Jenny Salesa has just tweeted her congratulations to Sepuloni.
Congratulations, Well done & really proud of our first Pacific Deputy PM, my friend & Tongan sister Hon @CarmelSepuloni! Today is a historic day for Samoa, Tonga & our Pacific People in Aotearoa NZ. You’ve got this Carmel👏🎉👏 ‘Ofa lahi & Alofa tele atu Sis xoxox ❤️🌺❤️🌺❤️ pic.twitter.com/oFRuujMoup
— Jenny Salesa (@JennySalesa) January 22, 2023
While leaving the caucus room, Michael Wood said he was feeling upbeat and excited.
Meka Whaitiri and Party President Jill Day have been seen giving Carmel Sepuloni a big hug.
Jacinda Ardern left the meeting carrying a bouquet of flowers.
Earlier Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins arrived at Parliament to cheers from the Labour caucus.
The pair, who walked into Labour’s caucus room side-by-side, were welcomed by their colleagues with strong applause and cheers.
Labour MPs arriving at Parliament ahead of a vote to confirm Chris Hipkins as party leader - and to select a deputy - have said the uncontested handover to Hipkins demonstrates a unified caucus.
The MPs will meet at 1pm to confirm Hipkins as leader. That is expected to be a unanimous vote - there are no other contenders. Carmel Sepuloni is understood to be Hipkins’ choice for deputy.
Hipkins will then give his first full press conference this afternoon and is expected to set out in more detail what his immediate plans are, and some indication of what stamp he might put on Labour’s current policy programme.
It’s expected Hipkins will outline when Jacinda Ardern will formally resign as Prime Minister and when he will be sworn in, which could be on Wednesday ahead of the first Cabinet meeting of 2023.
Neither Ardern nor Hipkins made comments before the meeting but Sepuloni continued to keep quiet on any discussions between her and the incoming Prime Minister, saying caucus would debate the matter.
“The whole way along I haven’t ruled anything in or out, there’s a process that needs to be undertaken and we need to respect the caucus members and those decisions,” she said.
Acknowledging messy leadership contests of the past, Sepuloni expressed her appreciation for how her colleagues had conducted themselves since Ardern confirmed she would be resigning.
Former Labour leader Andrew Little said he had been impressed by the maturity of the caucus.
“This is one of the largest caucuses in MMP parliaments that we’ve ever had and it’s held together through what has been a pretty challenging few days, it made a good decision, it made it quickly, I think it went very well.”
Earlier today, MPs were also staying silent on their own hopes from Hipkins, who will have to do reshuffle as one of his first jobs. All said they backed him: MP Kieran McAnulty said of Hipkins’ chances against National’s Christopher Luxon “I think Luxon is in for a ginger crunch.”
Greg O’Connor had one of the most philosophical comments, quipping “the queen is dead, long live the king” about the change from PM Ardern to Hipkins.
Trade Minister Damien O’Connor said Hipkins was “made for the job” and had had his support from day one - O’Connor was in Europe when Ardern resigned and had just arrived back.
He said he had seen several leadership changes in Labour in his time as an MP: “this has got to be the smoothest, the most sensible and hopefully the most progressive in terms of as we move towards the election.”
“We’ve had an amazingly united caucus and that unity will follow through. There will be some changes under Chris and we will embrace those and move on.”
“He’s pretty open, he’s pretty blunt. We know who he is.”
Tangi Utikere, MP for Palmerston North, told reporters he was “really excited” ahead of today’s events.
“Today the team will confirm Chris Hipkins as our next leader and therefore the next Prime Minister and that’s an exciting thing for all of us to be doing today.”
He would not be drawn on whether he hoped to be shifted up the party rankings, saying it was a matter for Hipkins.
Utikere was among the new MPs who entered Parliament following overwhelming support for Ardern in the 2020 election, which led to the party securing enough of the vote to govern alone.
Asked whether he feared for his job ahead of the upcoming election, Utikere said unity and teamwork were his focus.
“For us, it’s about being a team, we are united behind our new leader and I think Chris Hipkins will be a fantastic Prime Minister,” he said.
“We’ve got a long way to go in the campaign and I’m looking forward to playing my role as a member of his team.”
He also wouldn’t comment on who he felt should be Labour’s deputy leader, despite earlier reports Sepuloni is a frontrunner.
Luxton, MP for Canterbury’s Rangitata electorate, believed the support shown for Hipkins indicated a unified caucus.
Asked whether Labour’s Māori caucus members wanted representation in the deputy role, Luxton said the decision remained with Hipkins.
“I think there [are] so many different, talented and diverse people within our caucus as a whole and ultimately it will be up to the Prime Minister to decide.”
She described Ardern and Hipkins as “different people with different styles” when asked whether the incoming Prime Minister would alter policy introduced by his predecessor.
Northcote MP Shanan Halbert, a member of the Māori caucus, said current Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis had served the role well and had been a personal mentor to him.
However, he wouldn’t discuss whether he believed Davis should remain in the position leaving those discussions for caucus.
Greg O’Connor also said he wasn’t aware of Davis or current Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson signalling they did not want to remain in their roles under Hipkins’ leadership.
“I don’t think anyone’s done any signalling, it’s all been about one thing, making sure we did the right thing for New Zealand and get the right leader and I’m convinced that we’ll be doing that [today].”
Hipkins, the Police and Education Minister, was revealed yesterday as Labour’s sole nomination for the party’s leadership after Ardern last week stated she would resign as Prime Minister by February 7.