Mt Roskill MP Michael Wood at Liston Retirement Village today. He spent his first day on the job visiting the social housing community that he and others on the local board are fighting to save. Photo / NIcholas Jones
Mt Roskill MP Michael Wood at Liston Retirement Village today. He spent his first day on the job visiting the social housing community that he and others on the local board are fighting to save. Photo / NIcholas Jones
The country's newest MP will fly to Wellington tomorrow to join his Labour colleagues at Parliament after winning 21 out of 22 voting booths in the Mt Roskill electorate.
Michael Wood had his first day on the job today after Saturday's byelection victory over National list MP Parmjeet Parmar, choosing as his first official outing a visit to Liston Retirement Village, a social housing community that Wood and others on the local board are fighting to save, with the council keen to eventually make the land part of Monte Cecilia Park.
As the Herald interviewed Wood at the gates, each resident that drove inside stopped to offer congratulations - and he received a round of applause upon entry.
Wood was the favourite in yesterday's byelection but his team was thrilled with the size of his victory - capturing 66 per cent of the vote (11,170) to Parmar's 28 per cent (4652). Turnout was just under 39 per cent, with special votes yet to be counted.
In 2014, long-serving MP Phil Goff secured 57 per cent of the vote, to Parmar's 32 per cent.
Michael Wood was the favourite in yesterday's byelection but his team was thrilled with capturing 66 per cent of the vote. In 2014 Phil Goff secured 57 per cent of the vote. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
"We were incredibly pleased by the fact that the support is so widespread. Places like Maungawhau where Labour has traditionally come second to National, we won 58 per cent of the vote.
"Royal Oak Primary, a booth that we have never, ever won before according to 30-year veterans of Labour campaigns around here, we won. I just think that comes down to widespread concern in the community about those key issues of housing, transport and crime."
Wood said he believed the policies he campaigned on - crime, housing affordability and transport - had struck a chord, and Labour had put up a big ground game, including about 300-400 people on the ground on election day.
The 36-year-old also cited other efforts, including through social media.
"We had a young campaign team. In fact, I was the oldest person on our campaign committee. We put a lot of energy into building up and bringing in new leadership ... it was quite deliberate. We decided we wanted to run a modern, forward-looking progressive campaign ... we actively promoted younger people in our campaign into leadership roles."
Michael Wood, the Labour Party's newest MP, doing the hard yards in Mt Roskill last week. Photo / Michael Craig
At the Liston Retirement lunch, board member David Randall said he was thrilled for Wood, who had deep local connections through his community board work.
"He's a good young man who will bring a lot of youth into things. He is very much a local guy who has been into a variety of things like school boards. He'll do well."
Prime Minister John Key, speaking to media in Palmerston North today, said the thumping byelection loss was not embarrassing, and defended Parmar's campaign in a "massively strong" Labour seat.
"Labour will want to say somehow this has been good for them, but if it is, it's a pretty low bar really ... it doesn't take away from the fact that they're polling in the mid-20s and that's how they're going to end the year."
Labour leader Andrew Little and other senior party figures, including MPs Phil Twyford and Phil Goff, were at Wood's election function last night, with Little saying the overwhelming result had given the Government a "bloody nose".
He told the jubilant crowd of Labour supporters that National would try to "spin" the result, but it was a very poor one for them, given the fact there were more National voters in the electorate at the 2014 general election.
Wood will now take over from Phil Goff, who retired from Parliament to become Auckland Mayor.
Apart from a three-year break between 1990 and 1993, Goff has been the local MP since 1981, and had an 8000 majority in 2014.
In 2014, National got 14, 275 party votes - 2000 more than Labour - but one quarter of National voters opted for Goff.
How Mt Roskill voted
Wood's performance was dominant even at voting booths in National-leaning suburbs such as on the edges of Mt Eden, and Parmar only won one of 22 booths - the Epsom Methodist Church (139 votes to 103).
Wood won booths such as Maungawhau Primary School on the edge of Mt Eden (498 to Parmar's 319 votes) and Royal Oak Intermediate (434 to 213).
In Mt Roskill proper National voters were scarce, including Hay Park School (577 to 108) and Wesley Primary (262 votes to 7 for Parmar).
In the 2014 general election, Parmar won booths against long-serving MP Phil Goff, including Maungawhau Primary and Royal Oak Primary.
