Hitting 40 percent in the polls is Labour MP Jacinda Ardern's goal for 2015 – but as her National rival Jami-Lee Ross warns, they have to reach 30 first.
Labour had a shocking election, with just 25 percent – its worst result in more than 90 years. Ms Ardern says Labour tried to outline its alternative vision for the country, but was caught up in the Dirty Politics fallout, despite the party having nothing to do with the book's alleged dirty deeds.
"I think when we have stories like this, ultimately it damages anyone involved in politics," Ms Ardern said on Firstline this morning.
"Both major political parties wanted to talk about the big issues – we wanted to talk about inequality and how we could improve the economy, but it wasn't our fault that [National] were running a massive smear campaign against other political parties from the Prime Minister's office."
Prime Minister John Key's refusal to admit any wrongdoing dragged the story out, she says, to the point where it nearly consumed the entire election campaign.
"It was incumbent on us to say, 'Look, we do need to clean up what's going on.' But really genuinely doing that should have taken some acknowledgement from the Government that it had happened in the first place."
Mr Ross, also on Firstline this morning, said he thinks New Zealanders are "over it".
"Labour and the Greens tried to milk it for all it was worth, but it didn't actually get them very far. It had an impact on the election because we couldn't actually talk about actual election issues.
"The people that lost out here were New Zealanders – they didn't get to hear about real political issues. We tried to talk about issues that we felt mattered to the country; these guys tried to talk about Dirty Politics and it just became a big blur."
Judith Collins was the only major casualty, forced to resign her ministerial portfolios after a 2011 email surfaced which alleged she was involved in a smear campaign against the head of the Serious Fraud Office.
"I hope she gets the opportunity to come back – I think she was a very effective minister," says Mr Ross. "She's a friend of mine, and one of the sad parts of the year was seeing her having to resign her portfolios when ultimately she was cleared."
He says it's up to Mr Key if Ms Collins – once mooted as a future leader of the party – will get her old jobs back.
Despite the book focusing on his staff's alleged dirty tricks, under Mr Key's leadership National actually improved on its 2011 election result, a rarity for a third-term administration.
"I don't think you can talk about political winners and not say that John Key was the political winner of the year," says Mr Ross.
"He increased the number of seats the National Party has in the Parliament, he has been returned with an improved mandate. We did talk about the economy, we did talk about all the jobs that have been created. We did talk about health and law and order and education.
"I know I bang on about that a lot… but those are the important issues that we talked about in the election campaign. We wanted New Zealanders to endorse what we have done for the past six years, and they were willing to do that."
Ms Ardern is understandably reluctant to give the honour to Mr Key, instead talking up her party's new leader, Andrew Little.
"To see Andrew Little finish up so strong and to have all the team feeling as good as we did at the end of the year, I think he really deserves points for that."
As for next year, Mr Ross will be taking some time out as he welcomes his second child, and Ms Ardern will be focusing on getting Labour to that 40 percent mark in the polls.
3 News
source: newshub archive
