Labour's campaign manager Megan Woods wouldn't be drawn on whether her party wants to govern alone or form a coalition, but she says they want to build as much consensus as possible within Parliament.
Labour's campaign manager Megan Woods. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Labour swept to a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, winning 64 seats - enough to govern alone.
The Greens and ACT will have 10 MPs in Parliament each, but Labour will not need them, while National will only have 35.
Megan Woods told Morning Report it is too early to say if Labour will choose to govern alone or form a coalition.
"There's conversations to be had, there's not going to be decisions on those today, clearly there's just so much to digest from what's happened in the last few hours in terms of results.
"So really need to take the time to digest those results, conversations need to be had, but I think it's clear to say we want to build as much as consensus as possible, we want to be a government for all New Zealanders."
"We want to build as much consensus as possible" - Megan Woods
Woods confirmed those conversations with the minor parties, particularly the Greens, would likely happen today.
"There's numerous conversations that need to be had today, we need to regroup as a Labour team, we've been so focussed on our campaign and on the plan and rolling that out that now is the appropriate time to be thinking about what that result means.
"We've always said that we would wait to see the hand that voters dealt was before we spent our energy and our time thinking about the structure of the next government. That's the work that begins today."
Woods admitted she was in disbelief watching some of the results swing in Labour's favour last night.
"There are some extraordinary results in there and I think what we've seen is we've seen people who have voted for Labour for the first time ever and that's certainly something we don't take for granted."
She said Labour's wins in the Ilam, Rangitata, East Coast and both Hamilton electorates really took her by surprise.
Read more about the election results:
- Live updates: Election 2020 concludes; what next for New Zealand's political parties?
- The red tide: Labour wins 15 seats held by National
- National's Gerry Brownlee admits he made a 'huge mistake' during electioneering
- Labour wants to build as much consensus as possible - Megan Woods
- Comment: Jacinda Ardern has huge majority but that may not be much use to her
- Election 2020: The show is over for Winston Peters