‘Still proud’: Priyanca Radhakrishnan has won and lost. And made a little history
Priyanca Radhakrishnan poses for a photo during her election campaign. (Supplied photo)
The former Labour minister reflects on three years of rebuilding in Maungakiekie, and her role in the incoming Parliament.
When Priyanca Radhakrishnan talks about her campaign for Maungakiekie, she goes back further than the weeks she spent asking people for their votes.
The senior Labour parliamentarian talks about the team she built over three years, and the work they put in between elections. That made the preliminary result in her Auckland electorate harder to take.
“When you work hard on a campaign, your team has worked incredibly hard and you don’t get the result that you worked for, it is disappointing,” she told Awaaz. “But we ran a strong campaign and I’m still proud of that.”
With all 81 polling-place results in, National’s Greg Fleming leads Radhakrishnan by 2,952 votes in the preliminary count. The final count including special votes is expected on November 27.
Radhakrishnan is ranked 18th on Labour’s list and is on course to return to Parliament for a fourth term. She’ll also equal Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi's record for the longest unbroken stint by an Indian-origin MP.
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Bakshi was a list MP from National between 2008 and 2020. ACT’s Parmjeet Parmar is also expected to start her fourth term, but she spent a term out of Parliament before returning as an ACT list MP in 2023.
Radhakrishnan first entered Parliament on Labour’s list in 2017 and won Maungakiekie in 2020. She knows what it’s like to be the sitting MP, and when asked what made the seat so hard to win back, she pointed to something as ordinary as an invitation.
There are “the things that you’re invited to as the local MP”, she said, and over a term those appearances build visibility. “That’s what makes it tougher to go up against an incumbent as opposed to a new candidate.”
Fleming took Maungakiekie from Radhakrishnan by 4,617 votes in 2023. His lead is narrower this time, and Labour edged ahead of National on the local party vote, 32.26 per cent to 30.41 per cent.
Radhakrishnan returned on the list three years ago and looks set to do so again. When Awaaz asked whether she’d given any thought to the length of her time in Parliament, Radhakrishnan said she hadn’t.
“I’m in it to do some things. In fact, it didn't occur to me until you mentioned it,” she said.
What she brought up instead was what she’d helped get done as part of a term in government, and “the things that I had fought against and fought for” in opposition.
She said she was grateful to have had the chance to do both. Now she’s waiting to see “how the chips fall” before she knows which side of the House she’ll be doing that work from.
