Labour will take time to consider what went wrong in the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election, and how it plans to work with Te Pāti Māori, following the bruising defeat over the weekend.
Senior Labour MP Willie Jackson said it's too early to make decisions around strategy for contesting the Māori seats, but party leader Chris Hipkins said it will be competing "vigorously" for them next year.
Te Pāti Māori's Oriini Kaipara took out the Māori seat by a clear margin of around 3000 votes, beating Labour's Peeni Henare.
Jackson said the result was a shock, but "this is how elections go sometimes" and there is still a chance for the party next year.
"We can catastrophise this and go 'it's the end of the world' - but it's not," Jackson told media.
He said the party will look at what worked and what didn't work, as well as any strategies to contest the Māori seats in the next election.
Jackson said he wanted Henare to contest the seat next year, but that was up to him to make the final decision.
He said it was too early to make any decisions around Henare contesting the seat only, and removing himself from the Labour list. He also said it was too early to consider relinquishing the Māori seats entirely.
"What we have to look at is the relationship that we have with Te Pāti Maori. I think that's really important."
Jackson said he hoped Labour would meet with Te Pāti Māori's leadership by the end of the year. He said the relationship was generally "pretty good".
The parties needed to discuss what their priorities and policies were, he said, and how far Labour would go in different areas like education, health, whānau, water, "lots of things."
"I'm not saying there's going to be any coalition or anything like that, but the reality is, there's a natural relationship that we have with with them and with the Greens," adding Labour would probably meet with the Greens as well.
Jackson said there were unique circumstances in this by-election, including the "two for one" narrative Labour couldn't beat.
"Our people, to their credit, they just said, 'no, we like the both of them' and and that's where we're going.
"Māori are the most strategic voters in this country."
When asked, Henare wouldn't say if he would contest the seat next year, but acknowledged there were decisions to make around the best strategy for the party in contesting the Māori seats.
Asked if he would remove himself from the Labour list, forcing the electorate to vote him in on the Tāmaki Makaurau seat if they wanted him in Parliament, Henare said "everything's gotta be on the table for us to consider for 2026."
Campaign manager Willie Jackson said while the campaign had been "terrific", Labour could not discount the Te Pāti Māori "brand". Photo: RNZ / Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira
He acknowledged Labour had "work to do" - including his "social media game" - but the party had stepped into spaces it wasn't "traditionally strong" in.
"Those are encouraging signs for next year."
Henare pointed to his experience working alongside Te Pāti Māori with Te Ururoa Flavell, but said he wasn't sure how working with Te Pāti Māori would look like with the "current leadership."
"But we've got to remain hopeful."
Hipkins told media the party would be competing "vigourously" in the Māori seats.
"Maori voters, up and down the country, deserve the choice."
He said by-elections have their own "dynamics" and this result doesn't show that Māori don't have confidence in Labour.
Hipkins refused to be drawn on outlining how the party would work with Te Pāti Māori.
He said the focus right now was how to work with them in opposition, and there will be conversations closer to the next election about how they work together, along with the Greens, to change the government.
The parties had met regularly in the past he said, but not while the campaign was underway.
"But we did say that we'd meet again once the by-election was over, so I imagine we'll do that at some point in the next month or two."
Earlier today he told Morning Report working with the party wasn't guaranteed.
'Really bad news for Labour'
National's Deputy Leader Nicola Willis told media she "almost felt sorry for Peeni Henare" following the result.
National's Deputy Leader Nicola Willis. Photo: Marika Khabazi
"It's a body blow, not just to him personally, he clearly already had very high profile on the electorate, but it's a body blow to Labour, because they should have the organised machine in Auckland."
Willis said Labour was a far larger party then Te Pāti Māori, and should have access to better data, as well as have "more boots on the ground" to get their vote out.
She said it was devastating for Labour how few people turned out to vote for Henare.
Willis called Jackson's campaign to win the Māori seats a "fantasy" and asked what that meant for Labour's ability to govern.
"It means potentially a clean sweep across the Māori seats from Te Pāti Māori, and it means a Labour government proposition only exists, being propped up by a party that increasingly sounds quite separatist."
She pointed to Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris' comments on Instagram, which Jackson labelled racist, as a concern.
"They [Labour] looked pretty scared when they saw some comments that Tākuta Ferris was making last week. They seem to be scared by that too. I don't think it's just National MPs who thought those comments were inappropriate."
Both Henare and Jackson had called the comments racist, while leader Hipkins wouldn't explicitly say so.
"I have said that I want us to run an inclusive campaign, and I'm going to lead by example on that," he responded to being asked why he wouldn't call it out as racist.
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