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
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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.