Three 'winners' in Dunedin North

Dunedin North's returning Labour MP Pete Hodgson refused to watch television coverage of John Key's victory speech on Saturday night, using the time to rally the band of about 50 supporters gathered at Alhambra-Union Rugby Football Club clubrooms.

He was clearly shocked by Prime Minister Helen Clark's announcement she was standing down, saying he thought she might have done so in a couple of months or even longer.

It was, however, the sort of decisiveness for which Miss Clark was known.

She had always done what was in the best interests of the party, he said.

It was a time for renewal in the party, a process which had already begun with the stepping aside of some of the senior politicians, acknowledging that in the case of Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope that had involved "quite a lot of tension and passion".

He said while he was sad about the national result, he was also " quite charged" by the way Labour was appealing to young people, paying particular tribute to the support given by young people in the audience (about half of those present).

Some of them would "go on to become bad accountants and so on", but others would choose to have a role in politics.

The atmosphere at the clubrooms during the evening was subdued, but resigned.

Even before Miss Clark's concession speech, some young people were trying to find something positive about the expected defeat, also talking of the next three years as a time for the party to spend renewing the party at the grassroots.

Mr Hodgson was philosophical about the prospect of three years in opposition, pointing out that he had spent half of his 18 years in Parliament in that position.