New Zealanders yesterday resoundingly elected a new conservative government, with incumbent Prime Minister Chris Hipkins conceding that his center-left Labour party’s six years in power were over.
Hipkins, who replaced charismatic two-term New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern in January, said that he was “not in a position to form a government” and had already congratulated incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon.
“The result tonight is not one that any of us wanted, but I want you to be proud of what we achieved over the last six years,” Hipkins told Labour supporters in Wellington.
Photo: AFP
“On current numbers, it looks like National and ACT will be in position to form the next government,” Luxon added.
With 97 percent of votes tallied, National had 39 percent while Labour trailed on 27 percent.
As the result stood, National could form a government with the support of its ally, the libertarian ACT Party, on 9 percent.
However, they might need the backing of the nationalist New Zealand First party, on 6 percent, to reach a majority in parliament.
Luxon said that New Zealanders had “reached for hope and voted for change.”
The election campaign had been dominated by an increasingly difficult economic situation and a spike in the cost of living that has hit New Zealanders hard.
“My pledge to you is that National will deliver for every New Zealander,” Luxon said, promising to “build the economy and deliver tax relief.”
The 53-year-old, who says he sleeps only five hours a night, completed a rapid political ascent. Only four years ago he was working in the private sector.
He spent seven years as CEO Air New Zealand, and was hailed a future leader upon entering politics in 2019.
In their first 100 days in office, National plan a crackdown on youth offending, a ban on cellphones in schools and a scrapping of the Labour government’s planned fuel tax hikes.
“New Zealanders are going to wake up to not only a new day, but the promise of a new government and a new direction,” Luxon told supporters in Auckland. “I cannot wait to get stuck in and get to work because New Zealand has chosen change and we will get this country back on track.”
Labour’s support has collapsed from 50 percent at the 2020 election, when Ardern led the party to the first outright majority since New Zealand switched to a proportional representation system in 1996.
“I did know when I took on this job that it was going to be an uphill battle,” Hipkins told supporters. “No government has replaced a prime minister in an election year and carried on to win. I gave it my all to turn the tide of history, but alas, that was not enough.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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