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Election night sketches 2020 header

PoliticsOctober 18, 2020

Election night in 10 drawings

Election night sketches 2020 header

Last night Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris sat down in the office with a ipad, two slices of pizza and a brief to provide live-ish election night coverage via the medium of drawing. Here’s how that went.

In the lead up to finally finding out some results, the big story was how many New Zealanders had voted early. I’ve traditionally always waited till the big day, but sometimes traditions suck: This time I couldn’t wait to get this election over and done with and it turns out other New Zealanders agreed.

Once results started rolling in, it was clear from the very beginning that National were in for a brutal night. Nikki Kaye on the TVNZ coverage was doing her best to put on a brave face (for hours and hours and hours it turned out) but the eyes don’t lie. The look on her face was devastating.

Meanwhile, down at the viaduct, Act were riding high. David “no publicity stunt too cheesy” Seymour arrived by boat, rushing inside to say “Hi, hi, hi” to his nine new workmates.

 

By about eight o’clock it seemed like Jacinda Ardern must have started writing her victory speech. The only question is whether she’d feel like the massive landslide and the lack of handbrakes would give her the mandate to lead us into brave new territory, or whether having even the most traditionally true blue National electorates turn towards her would encourage her to play it safe and centrist. In the closing stages of the campaign the party’s main message morphed subtly from “Let’s Keep Moving” into “strong and stable government”. So did we all just vote for change, or stability?

By 8.30pm, some of the magnitude of the fallout was starting to become clear. Peters out! Advance NZ nowhere near anybody or anything (that was wasn’t a surprise, but was satisfying)! Brownlee on the ropes!

A few hours into election night coverage, we start to hit a sweet spot between the urgent rush of the immediate headlines early on and the big concession or victory speeches later in the night, where we start to check in on some of the other storylines and specific electorates. Keiran McAnulty’s celebration party in Wairarapa was a bloody delight, and to see his magnificent ute get a good shout out just about stole the whole show. A deeply Kiwi moment in the best possible way.

 

Staying on McAnulty’s party (look, I enjoyed it, OK?) this guy hanging out over his shoulder on live TV was a classic too. I initially thought I’d try to draw a few random punters in the background at the celebrations, but I ran out of time. It’s one of my favourite parts of election night and a true glimpse into the real people who get roped into going to these things. Big shout outs, for example, for the background young Nats still trying getting on it at the bleakest party on earth.

There’s no shortage of examples of why this year is crazy, but I think a clear one is how little fuss has been made about Winston Peters getting quietly swept out the back door. The guy has been making NZ Politics headlines since the 70s, but when the end came (if this is the end, but it sure seems like it) it came quickly and quietly. This semi-concession speech was classic Winston – slightly vague, slightly menacing, couple of jokes – but in the end, given every else going on, it all felt slightly anticlimactic.

The Greens on the other hand were jubilant and understandably so. There was something perfectly Green Party about Swarbrick and Davidson sharing a pair of earphones to hear over the roar of their fired up crowd. Efficient use of resources! The people love it!

 

By 10.30pm Prime Minister Ardern had made her way to the Auckland Town Hall to give her victory speech. The very fact they held their election night party there (and not, for example, at a yacht club) suggests Labour knew that victory was all but assured, but even still they all seemed genuinely blown away by the scale and breadth of the utter smashing (seriously, they won the party vote in every single South Island electorate). Ardern’s public presence this campaign has often come across as serious and pensive, but she couldn’t hide the smile last night. A historic win.

Keep going!
Jacinda Ardern speaks to Labour’s election party at Auckland Town Hall, October 17, 2020. (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Jacinda Ardern speaks to Labour’s election party at Auckland Town Hall, October 17, 2020. (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

PoliticsOctober 18, 2020

Labour goes to town on a record breaking night

Jacinda Ardern speaks to Labour’s election party at Auckland Town Hall, October 17, 2020. (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Jacinda Ardern speaks to Labour’s election party at Auckland Town Hall, October 17, 2020. (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

There was delight to be found at Labour’s election night function, but not too much. As in the campaign as a whole, caution trumped exuberance. Justin Giovannetti was there.

There was a sense of near disbelief most of the night at Labour’s campaign event in central Auckland as the results poured in and they were better than almost anyone had expected.

About half of New Zealanders cast a vote for Labour and, implicitly, for leader Jacinda Ardern, a blowout win that saw the party carry electorates across the country that it hadn’t expected to win. For hours, the Labour faithful didn’t want to get too excited. Like fans at a sports game, they were worried too much cheering might blow a historic chance.

“I think everyone expected Labour to do well, but I don’t think people expected it this early,” said Adam Brand, a leader in Young Labour who featured prominently in The Spinoff’s youth wings series. He was nursing a $10 plastic glass of Jim Beam, his fingers crossed for most of the evening.

“If they opened the bar I’m afraid they’d drain the party’s coffers,” added Brand. A queue formed up at the bar, which did brisk business draining casks of wine and hawking Heineken in plastic cups.

As the results kept coming in and Labour’s lead held, the emotions slowly started coming out. There were waves of cheers as the party was shown on a large screen in the middle of Auckland’s town hall leading in seats like Ilam and Rangitata.

David Parker, a senior Labour MP who holds a number of posts including attorney-general, was one of the first in the room to use the term “landslide” to describe the win. There was s cheer as Labour nudged  ahead for a moment in Papakura, National leader Judith Collins’ electorate.

“I think we’re very privileged to have a prime minister as good as Jacinda Ardern, we’re also lucky to have a system of government that is maintaining a consensus with the people at a time when politics is so fractured around the world,” said Parker.

Hours later, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern would take the stage and make a similar point. Reaching out to National supporters who have voted Labour this time, she said New Zealand is still a nation where people listen to each other and debate.

“Elections aren’t always great at bringing people together but they also don’t need to tear one and another apart,” she said. The remark comes as the American presidential election enters its final weeks. That election has been one of the most divisive, in a country with a recent history of polarising elections.

Back on the floor in Auckland, Parker’s bet in the office pool was 48.6%, close to the final result, but not quite. One of the challenges facing the National Party now, he said, is that they’ll be bringing in very little new talent while Labour will add more than a dozen new MPs.

“We’ll do our best to honour that trust,” he said of the party’s new supporters. “And we have a lot of good MPs are coming, good talent that’ll serve the Labour Party well for a decade at least”.

Willie Jackson, an outspoken Labour MP, said that the evening’s result was a repudiation of the National Party. The opposition’s vote dropped by over 17%.

“I think this shows that there’s an ugliness from the National Party campaign. I know Judith was giving it her all, but people don’t like that style of politics, either from them or from her,” he said. In the final week of the campaign, Collins called Ardern a liar and goaded the Labour leader to sue her.

“New Zealand is at a different place now. Our prime minister sets the benchmark, she shows great leadership. We’re all learning from her and I probably have to learn a bit more,” he joked.

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