Nikki Kaye keen to work with council on city's plan

Nikki Kaye, who hung on to Auckland Central by a slender majority, takes a post-election break at the Viaduct yesterday. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The Auckland Central electorate came down to 535 votes as National's Nikki Kaye defended her seat against Labour list MP Jacinda Ardern.

A third candidate in the electorate, the Green Party's Denise Roche, also made it into Parliament as a list MP.

Ms Kaye said her priorities were marine protection of the Hauraki Gulf, public transport, increasing housing, and lobbying for research and innovation centres.

"The central city master plan is something I'm very keen to work on with Auckland Council in the short-term ... to make sure it adequately accommodates walking and cycling, and look into the feasibility of a tram loop," she said.

Whether she could end up as a Cabinet minister down the track was up to the Prime Minister and the National Party, Ms Kaye said.

"I want to be making a big contribution to Auckland, and I will stay in Parliament as long as I can do that."

On Saturday, Ms Kaye's campaign team gathered at a Viaduct restaurant where panels of big screens showed custom pie-charts tracking the vote counts and projecting the final result.

The MP's celebrations began early on the back of those calculations.

"We saw some of the booths come in - like the central city, where I believe we won two-to-one, and Rocky Bay, which we won for the first time for the National Party - and that's when we had a positive indication."

Meanwhile, Ms Ardern, a politician who is considered to be a rising star of the Labour Party, has been linked by rumours to Phil Goff's Mt Roskill seat if he resigns - but for now she has said she is staying put.

The Auckland Central race had been "incredibly important" for her, even though she was always going to get back into Parliament on the list.

"We wanted to take this seat back, but not just because it was once a Labour seat - we have a vision for Auckland and New Zealand," she said.

"I always wanted to wake up and know we gave everything we had and have no regrets."

Ms Roche, of the Green Party, said the trio of MPs had learned to respect one another during the campaign and would try to work together across party lines in Parliament.

Yesterday, she was celebrating on Waiheke with her local supporters.

"I'm still kind of coming to terms with it [her new status as an MP]. I just see it as a huge privilege."

12,358 Nikki Kaye (National)

11,823 Jacinda Ardern (Labour)

2188 Denise Roche (Green)

341Allen Davies (NZ First)