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Q+A: Michael Wood

Michael Wood: Simple Message Behind Labour Win in Mt Roskill

Labour’s Michael Wood, who last night won a 6,000 vote majority in the Mt Roskill by-election, says the reason for the win was simple, clear messaging.

“The polls come and go, but what actually matters is our ability to talk about issues, to get a clear message out and then to win people’s trust and support. We… did it by keeping the issues and messages relevant to people’s lives and keeping them simple. We didn’t throw a thousand different policies out there. We talked about the core issues that people cared about around affordable housing, around decent transport and crime,” he told Jessica Mutch on TVNZ’s Q+A.

With Labour languishing in general political polls, in contrast to the substantial by-election win, Mr Wood was asked if the party had a problem with its ‘messenger’, Andrew Little.

“I think we’ve got good messages and an excellent messenger. We’ve just got to pull those things together and absolutely work our backsides off over the next year.

That was our other lesson in Mt Roskill – you put the groundwork in from early. We didn’t pop up a few weeks out; we’ve been grinding away, knocking on 25,000 doors over the last six months. And I think that’s one of the other key lessons is that one-to-one, old-fashioned communication, which we did quite systematically on the issues, really works.”

END

Please find attached the full transcript of the interview and here’s the Link:

Q+A, 9-10am Sundays on TVNZ 1 and one hour later on TVNZ 1 + 1.
Repeated Sunday evening at around 11:35pm. Streamed live at www.tvnz.co.nz
Thanks to the support from NZ On Air.
Q+A is also on Facebook: here and on Twitter

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Q + A
Episode 39
MICHAEL WOOD
Interviewed by Jessica Mutch

JESSICA When those numbers started coming in last night, how much of a relief was it for you? Because there was a lot riding on this for Labour, wasn’t there?

MICHAEL There was a lot riding on it. That had been pointed out to use, very helpfully, by a few political friends over the week leading up. We felt positive going into the night, but the results exceeded our expectations by a big margin. We won booths in Mt Roskill that Labour has never ever won before, so we’re thrilled with the result.

JESSICA Did you feel that pressure because, as you say, those political friends in National were saying that this is a bit of a do-or-die moment for Andrew Little? Was that a lot riding on your shoulders?

MICHAEL There was a lot of responsibility on me and our big campaign team, but, no, I didn’t feel the pressure. We started campaigning six months ago. We had a really good plan in place, and we knew that we’d done the groundwork, and if we just continued doing that in the final week, we felt positive that we’d get a good result.

JESSICA Because there was also the Phil Goff factor in all of this. Do you feel like you’re a mini Phil Goff? And how do you get out of that shadow? Do you even want to get out of that shadow?

MICHAEL Yeah, no, one of the pieces of advice Phil has given me over the year is – you have to be your own person. So there are attitudes and outlooks and values that I share with Phil, but I will come to things from a slightly different perspective. It’s been amazing to have his very active support and his mentoring through this whole process, but I’ll have to cut my own way as well, and I think that’s what people expect.

JESSICA How are you going to do that in the electorate over the next couple of months?

MICHAEL Hmm. So there’s setting up my own office, initially. And one of the things I want to do in the first few months is just go back to the grassroots, reconnect with all the people and the groups, go back on those issues that we’ve been campaigning on. I’ve already got a pile of constituent issues to pick up that have flowed through during the course of the campaign. So it’s just getting on with the work of being a good local electorate MP, and I start that from tomorrow.

JESSICA Because you’ve been out selling Labour’s message pretty much full-time over the last couple of months. On the ground, how are people absorbing that message? Because in the polls Labour isn’t doing well. Why not?

MICHAEL Hmm. Well, the polls come and go, but what actually matters is our ability to talk about issues, to get a clear message out and then to win people’s trust and support. We showed we could do that in this by-election campaign, and we did it by keeping the issues and messages relevant to people’s lives and keeping them simple. We didn’t throw a thousand different policies out there. We talked about the core issues that people cared about around affordable housing, around decent transport and crime.

JESSICA But are you seeing this as a win? Are you seeing this as a bit of a boost for Labour? Because our poll and several others are saying that Labour’s just not resonating with people.

MICHAEL Absolutely. What it showed is that when Labour goes out and campaigns on the issues that matter to people, when we have strong organisation coming in behind that, when we put it together with a crisp and simple message, people respond to us. We won 21 out of 22 polling booths today—yesterday.

JESSICA But you didn’t have the Greens or New Zealand First in that mix – granted, 6500 is a big majority – but you didn’t have that at play.

MICHAEL That’s right. And National didn’t have Act or the Conservative Party running for them either. So it was a clear contrast between National’s message and Labour’s message, and we came out with a very strong result – 67% of the vote – so we’re pleased with that.

JESSICA So is it the messenger that’s not working, then?

MICHAEL Absolutely not. I think we’ve got good messages and an excellent messenger. We’ve just got to pull those things together and absolutely work our backsides off over the next year. That was our other lesson in Mt Roskill – you put the groundwork in from early. We didn’t pop up a few weeks out; we’ve been grinding away, knocking on 25,000 doors over the last six months. And I think that’s one of the other key lessons is that one-to-one, old-fashioned communication, which we did quite systematically on the issues, really works. And we’ll be rolling that out next year.

JESSICA Do you think Andrew Little needs to do more of that, getting into election year?

MICHAEL Andrew’s doing a huge amount of that, and he was on the ground with me in Mt Roskill every single week doing this. I think that our message is getting out there. It showed in this by-election that our messages are resonating. People voted for us. Of course, we’ve got to multiply that out across 67 electorates next year and across the whole electorate of New Zealand. I think we can do it, and I feel positive coming out of this weekend.

JESSICA So what does Andrew Little need to do?

MICHAEL I think he needs to keep on doing what he’s doing now and what we did in this by-election – talking about those key issues – housing, rising crime, transport, education – keeping it simple. And that’s what he’s doing. We’re just going to keep to that strategy, and I think we’ll win next year.

JESSICA We’re going to have to leave it there. Congratulations on your new job, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of you next year.

MICHAEL Thanks, Jess.


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