A new political era is beginning as leaders hunker down ahead of the release of special vote results on November 27, which will determine the make up of Parliament.
While party leaders are heading into somewhat of a three week reprieve as they wait for the special votes to come in, it's the first day of school for a handful of fresh-(and not so fresh) faced MPs.
After every election, new MPs undertake a Parliamentary induction where they pick up everything from their new phones, to a meet and greet afternoon tea with the Press Gallery.
The majority will be sticking around, however usually one or two are knocked off after the special votes come in.
For ACT, new faces include broadcaster Paul Henry and former National candidate James Christmas, the Greens are welcoming former Nelson deputy major Rohan O'Neill-Stevens, Labour is welcomnig back former Cabinet Minister Michael Wood, while NZ First also welcomes back former National MPs Harete Hipango-Brownlie, Michael Laws and Alfred Ngaro.
Making his way towards Parliament, NZ First MP Alfred Ngaro was asked about NZ First's party vote result.
Ngaro said they always had to start with a “cup half full.”
“So how about we start with half full? What a great result.”
He said the party did want a better result but he was proud of what they had achieved.
Asked what he thought should happen with Michael Laws, Ngaro said that was above his pay grade.
“Our leader has spoken. He’s spoken on behalf of the party and that’s important so I stand by his comments.”
On returning to Parliament, he said: “Being out for six years, you get to see, reflect, and think about when you come back, who were you representing? And the most important thing is more than just the caucus that we're here - is the very people who voted for us, and they're trusting us. That's the number one."
Meanwhile first-time NZ First MP Taine Randell, a former All Blacks captain, said the NZ First party vote result was a bit disappointing and the party would rather have been higher.
But if you looked at the context, he said, the party had increased its number of seats.
Asked if he wanted to be a minister, Randell said: “I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at this, so I might be useless. I might be awesome. We’ll see how it goes.”
New National MPs Emma Chatterton, Mahesh Muralidhar, Lloyd Budd and Matthew Paul also made their way to Parliament on Monday morning.
Papakura MP Chatterton said it was wonderful to be here and she was grateful to be elected by the people of Papakura, and looking forward to getting to work.
Muralidhar, the new MP for Tāmaki, said he was excited.
Asked if they were disappointed by National’s party vote, the new MPs didn’t directly answer with Muralidhar saying it was their first day and they were really excited.
The MPs did not respond when asked if any of them wanted to be Finance Minister.
Luxon says new finance minister will be a Natoiunal MP
Speaking to media on Sunday, National leader Christopher Luxon said a finance minister in his government would be a National MP.
That follows speculation around ACT leader David Seymour taking the role with Nicola Willis now out of Parliament.
"Caretaker provisions mean that Nicola will carry on as finance minister until the new government is sworn in, as you understand and know," Luxon said.
"But that finance minister will be a National Party person, as I've said before, that's not negotiable."
What is negotiable however is Luxon's stance on talking to Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong. He ruled out working with the party pre-election but now wants to talk to her.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB on Monday morning, Luxon said: "I do want to have a relationship and I do want to talk to her."
On Sunday, asked if he would pick up the phone to Wong, Luxon said it was unlikely they would need Opportunity to form a government, but, "one of the big takeaways over the course of the campaign, but certainly off the results last night, is that there needs to be a lot more cross-party collaboration going forward."
"I do expect, irrespective of the numbers, to actually build a relationship with her and the Opportunity Party in the same way that I expect to build a relationship and deepen a relationship with the existing party leaders in Parliament as well."
Meanwhile, Opportunity deputy leader Daniel Eb told interest.co.nz on election night which politicians he’d like to work with if Opportunity got into Parliament.
Eb named politicians across the party spectrum, including Labour’s Vanushi Walters, National’s Chris Bishop, the Greens’ Marama Davidson and ACT’s David Seymour.
“The problem we have is not a lack of good people; it's a lack of a good political process that can actually deliver cross-party action over a successive government,” he said.
The who's who of Opportunity
Interest.co.nz reporter Ella Somers covered Opportunity on election night. She spoke to those working behind the scenes as the party readies itself to enter Parliament.
Here's her reports on the night from board members, the new chief of staff and the second in command:
Decked in a pink-checked shirt and grinning from ear to ear, Opportunity’s general manager Iain Lees-Galloway – who was a Labour Minister between 2017 and 2020 – tells interest.co.nz that it’s been a fantastic day, with “plenty of adrenaline going around.”
“We're a small party; we don't have massive resources. We certainly, of course, didn't have parliamentary resources. And so we needed to draw on the passion and skills and expertise of volunteers to do most of our campaigning.”
Lees-Galloway will have a new job if Opportunity enters Parliament – he told Ella Somers that Wong has asked him to be her Chief of Staff – at least on an interim basis, to get the Opportunity party set up in Government.
“I have accepted that challenge,” he said.
Opportunity board member – and the party’s biggest donor this year – Alan Wildland told interest.co.nz the party had experienced an excellent result.
Wildland is the co-founder of music software company Serato Audio Research and has provided Opportunity with $180,000 through three donations since January 2026, according to the Electoral Commission.
“I feel great, it's an excellent result,” Wildland said.
“I'm really proud NZ has given us a chance and we've got three years to show that we are who we say we are.”
Opportunity deputy leader Daniel Eb told interest.co.nz that he was feeling good about Opportunity’s result and said he wasn’t surprised by how enthusiastic supporters were when Wong arrived at Eden Park on Saturday night for Opportunity’s party.
“I think she's just led with such poise and grace and empathy, and she really encapsulates the determination that sort of wound its way through this campaign,” he said.
“You put yourself in the shoes of what this room has done over the last six months, the hours they put in, I think it's absolutely right and just and fitting that there's a big outburst of emotion when the boss walks in and we can celebrate something that we can achieve together.”
Now we wait
Election 2026 delivered a marginal win for the right bloc on election night, but Luxon acknowledges it’s still too close to call with the final result not set to be clear until special votes are released on November 27.
The numbers
Projected blocs (66 needed) for a 131 seat Parliament (11 seat overhang)
The right bloc seats: National 42 + ACT 13 + NZ First 12 = 67
The left bloc (with Opportunity and the Greens as Labour's preferred partners): Labour 36 + Greens 16 + Opportunity 7 + TPM 5 = 64
The parties
National Party 29.21% 42 electorate seats, 0 list seats (42 total)
Labour Party 29.36% 21 electorate seats, 15 list seats (36 total)
Green Party 13.30% 2 electorate seats, 14 list seats (16 total)
ACT New Zealand 10.92% 1 electorate seats, 12 list seats (13 total)
New Zealand First Party 9.78% 12 list seats (12 total)
Opportunity Party 5.96% - 6 list seats (6 total)
Te Pāti Māori 0.57% 5 electorate seats (5 total)
The Electoral Commission estimates the number of special votes is approximately 399,365 - approximately 14%.
The overhang
Parliament has 120 seats, but this election has delivered a staggering 11 extra overhang seats. The overhang is when additional seats are added to Parliament's 120 to accommodate extra MPs due to the difference between electorate and party vote results.
Those seats come from Te Pāti Māori which only received 0.57% of the vote, but were successful in winning five Māori electorate seats. They bring in one new MP, Aperahama Edwards who won Te Tai Tokerau.
The other overhang seats come from National, which only pulled in 29% of the party vote but won 42 electorates.
That meant National brought in no list MPs, so the likes of Nicola Willis, Paul Goldsmith and Gerry Brownlee will not be returning to Parliament. Chris Bishop is also behind by almost 900 votes in Hutt South, meaning he would also not be returning.
Additional reporting by Mandy Te and Ella Somers
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