Labour has re-elected Chris Hipkins as its leader, staving off the political Hunger Games - at least for now.
But in the face of an electoral drubbing, the party is making changes. It's got a new deputy and Hipkins has re-opened the Capital Gains Tax can of worms, saying it could be back on the table.
It's like the skies could read the room; gloomy and grey matching the mood of the glum Labour lot as they trudged in to begin fossicking through the wreckage of electoral annihilation.
"We have plenty of material on postmortems on the election campaign," said Labour MP Phil Twyford.
There's plenty to look back on but they must try and move forward, and the first step is to confirm the leader.
"Chris Hipkins has my support," said Peeni Henare.
"Chris is our leader, of course he is," said Grant Robertson.
"I absolutely think he's a great guy," said Helen White.
Some are better than others at keeping aspirations in check.
"I just told you I'm backing Chippy," said Kieran McAnulty.
"Oh hell no," said Barbara Edmonds when asked if she would possibly take a crack at being leader.
Arena Williams was asked if she wanted to be leader.
"I see my role right now is working out why those 4000 people in Manurewa did not support Labour this time."
Asked if she wanted to be leader one day, she said: "I am going to go get a coffee."
But ultimately, Hipkins confirmed he was still leader.
There was no one else.
"It's an endorsement vote and there was only one candidate and that was me," Hipkins said.
Kelvin Davis - who's grown himself an Opposition beard - has called time on his tenure as deputy leader.
That's made way for Carmel Sepuloni to become deputy.
They are the team who were thrown the reins of Government and let them slip.
"Many of the seeds of our defeat were sown well before we became the leadership team," said Hipkins.
The future can't look anywhere near as grim as their recent past, but casting forward to the next election is a tough task for some.
Asked if Hipkins would lead Labour into the 2026 election, Twyford said: "That's crystal ball gazing and I'm not going to speculate on it."
"Nobody knows what's going to be happening in 2026. He may not even be here," said Greg O'Connor.
"Look that's a long way away. Chippy has my full support," said Ingrid Leary.
Hipkins said he was confident he would be leader in 2026.
Between now and then will be a complete overhaul of their policy platform, with previously scorched policies like a wealth or capital gains tax back up for discussion.
"I've also been clear with the caucus. We lost therefore we start again and everything comes back onto the table and that includes tax," said Hipkins.
The promise now is to do the best job an Opposition can do.
"We are looking forward to the next three years in Parliament. We've got a big job to do and that is holding the Government once it is formed to account," Hipkins said.
Willie Jackson was warning of a war if ACT gets its referendum on the Treaty out of coalition negotiations.
"I don't want civil unrest in our country. I'm just giving them a warning. I work amongst our people. I work amongst people who will go to war for this."
ACT leader David Seymour said: "We're asking for rational debate and discussion."
"When people threaten war as the alternative to that they are not being a good actor investing in the future of our country."
First things first - there still needs to be a Government to fight.
