Nau mai, haere mai.

“You have voted for change,” National leader and prime minister-elect Christopher Luxon said on election night, and at one level that is obviously true. As Richard Shaw wrote the next day, “Labour’s 26.9% of the vote is barely half what it achieved just three years ago, and its second worst performance since 1969.”

National’s looming coalition challenges aside, though, just how much choice was really available to voters? Smaller parties such as the Greens and Te Pāti Māori did well, but they rely on Labour doing better in the head-to-head contest with National to have any real influence.

Meanwhile, Toby Boraman argues, the immediate policy differences between the major parties serve to mask a deeper consensus on the fundamental economic settings that determine the parameters of real change.

And while Labour under Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins did espouse alternative world views to the old neoliberal defaults, Boraman writes, it only differed from National by degrees when it came to taxation, interest rates, inflation and “fiscal responsibility”.

There will be more post-election coverage to come, of course, with final results due on November 3 when the shape of the next government will become clearer. For now, take care and mā te wā.