The tone-deaf hyperbole machine
Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni won the seat of Waitakere off National Party Minister Paula Bennett by 11 votes after special votes were included in the count.
Meanwhile, the specials cost Labour a seat in the formerly rock-solid Christchurch Central electorate. Brendan Burns lost to National’s Nicky Wagner by 45 votes — a tiny margin but more than four times that achieved by Sepuloni.
BY picking up an additonal electorate seat (Chch Central was tied on election night), Labour loses a list MP, Raymond Huo. Their total parliamentary representation, as befitting a proportional electoral system, remains at 34.
Net gain: zero.
Don’t get me wrong, Carmel Sepuloni pipping Paula Bennett at the post is a pleasing outcome, but I was surprised to read a statement this afternoon from Labour’s President Moira Coatsworth and General Secretary Chris Flatt that described the 11-vote win as a “momentous” and “a great victory for Labour.”
By this measure, the Christchurch Central result must be a “shocking blow” and a “grave defeat”; Raymond Huo’s departure from Parliament must be “a tragic loss”; and my lacklustre 40 minute cardio workout at the gym this morning must surely qualify as “an athletic triumph”.
Tone-deaf.
