National's Southland MP Joseph Mooney has told about 80 supporters in Queenstown his party is up for the challenge on getting New Zealand ‘‘back on track’’.
With 81% of the votes counted in Southland, Mr Mooney has enjoyed a landslide win — he has 17,561 votes to Labour’s Simon McCallum’s 4313 and the Greens Dave Kennedy on 2368.
Southland has, perhaps unsurprisingly, joined the ‘bluenami’, with National leading the party vote on 13,381 ahead of Labour (4425) and Act (3789).
National’s Southland electorate chairman Allan Baird told Mr Mooney a short time ago it was great he had succeeded, following ‘‘a couple of missteps’’, referring to disgraced former Southland MPs Todd Barclay and Hamish Walker, neither of whom survived their first terms.
Mr Baird said he was hopeful some of Mr Mooney’s shadow portfolio would could be redistributed, enabling him to focus on some key work.
‘‘Best of luck for higher honours ... obviously Ministerial portfolios will be keenly sought and we’re hopeful that something comes to our region.’’
Mr Mooney described it as a ‘‘special night’’, with the change of government something the party had worked tirelessly for over three years.
The wins in Southland represented ‘‘tireless work’’ from a tonne of volunteers who believed in ‘‘centre-right values [and] delivering better results for our people in our region and our country’’.
‘‘There’s a lot of work to be done, and we’re up for it ... I’m keen to do what I can to represent the best interests of Southland and make sure we can get some good results across the line for our people.’’
