Chris Hipkins on election night, superimposed over the crowd at the Labour headquarters in Lower Hutt. Photo: RNZ
"People who were used to being Cabinet ministers and making high-level decisions struggle quite a bit with that transition to being a garden-variety MP again," - Sue Moroney
After a devastating collapse in their vote on election night, the Labour Party is examining what went so wrong and who is best to lead them from the opposition benches.
Current and former MPs alike are calling for a wider refocusing on the party's values and relationships to avoid the kind of fracturing that often so plagues parties banished from government.
Almost two weeks after their drubbing at the polls - which cut their caucus from more than 60 MPs to just 34 and lost them stronghold electorates like Mt Roskill, New Lynn and West Coast-Tasman - emotions in the party are still raw.
Reflection inevitably turns to questions of leadership, and while MPs publicly backed Chris Hipkins to remain in the job for now, Willie Jackson spoke of support from "most" and leadership ambitions from one or two.
Under party rules, the caucus must vote on the leadership within three months of the election.
Political commentator and former Labour candidate Josie Pagani says if Hipkins can return to the instinct he had when he first took over - the bread and butter basics - he'll deserve to take the party to the 2026 election.
Photo: RNZ / Paul Bushnell
"If Chris Hipkins can prove that, he starts from an honest, difficult analysis of what went wrong and why the Labour party lost - which frankly is not the gods, cyclones, external factors, inflation, cost of living and so on, it was the inability of Labour to respond to those things in a way that voters wanted them to."
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Hipkins will be keenly aware of Labour's last stint in opposition, marred by disunity, factionalism and a rolling maul of leaders from 2008 to 2017.
After nine years in government, Helen Clark stood down on election night and handed Phil Goff the reins - but support for the party kept falling, winning 27 percent of the vote in 2011. David Shearer won the next leadership contest but two years later David Cunliffe took over, defeating challengers Grant Robertson and Shane Jones.
Cunliffe led Labour to win just 25 percent of the vote in 2014 - its worst performance since 1922 - and eventually resigned. After briefly contesting the subsequent leadership contest, he withdrew, and Andrew Little won the role - beating Roberston, David Parker, and Nanaia Mahuta. Little rebuilt the caucus' unity before handing over to Jacinda Ardern.
Little went on to six years as a minister in her government, but after this year's defeat has called time on politics, making space for others as Labour prepares for the opposition benches.
About a third of remaining Labour MPs experienced those tumultuous years in opposition including Senior MP Carmel Sepuloni, who says prioritising relationships - inside the caucus, in the wider party and with stakeholders - is what can prevent the factionalism and disunity.
Carmel Sepuloni on returning to Wellington two days after the election. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"I think the general public and the media were all over the fact that those things happened when we were in opposition, but they were also things that happened when National was in opposition. Unfortunately it seems to be part and parcel of our history of oppositions and we want to avoid that happening this time around ... I don't want to believe that it's inevitable."
Former Labour MP and chief party whip Sue Moroney spent four terms at Parliament - three of them in opposition - and suggests keeping that focus will be a challenge.
"People go into Parliament to make a difference and it's really hard to do that in opposition. So, you know, every day spent in opposition can feel like a bit of a grind and that certainly makes it hard for a caucus full of passionate people who are wanting to make change."
She hopes this loss will galvanise the party to properly reset, rebrand, and "ensure that the public knows what we stand for".
"They actually have to take a long hard look at some of those decisions, and the political management of both policy issues and the management of people that really tripped them up in the last year or so. You just can't pretend that those things didn't happen."
Sue Moroney delivering her valedictory speech in 2017. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
An obvious example is the division over whether to support a capital gain or wealth tax, Moroney says.
"Then they have to build the argument around which of the paths that they've decided they're going to take because while they're in two minds about it they haven't got a hope of being able to explain to the voting public what their view is and why that's their view."
The Labour Party's review of the 2023 election campaign is already under way. An internal panel reporting back to Labour's governing council - has been established and party members have been asked for their feedback.
RNZ has been told the findings will not be made public.
In this week's Focus on Politics, Political Reporter Katie Scotcher explores the challenge Labour faces in rebuilding after its clear election defeat.
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