National MP for Southland Joseph Mooney and Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds took the lion’s share of votes in their electorates, while the government also shifts from red to blue under incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Mrs Simmonds took home 18,578 of the Invercargill electorate’s total vote, 8889 votes ahead of Labour candidate Liz Craig’s with 9689 votes.
The margin was notably wider than that of the 2020 election, when Mrs Simmonds first defeated Dr Craig by just 224 votes.
Mr Mooney received 19,981 of votes in the Southland electorate, 14,973 ahead of Labour’s Simon McCallum with 5008 votes, and Green candidate Dave Kennedy (2875).
Mr Mooney said he was excited to start "doing the hard yards to get the country back on track".
While there was still "a bit of water to flow under the bridge" before ministerial portfolios were handed out by Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon, he would love to do whatever he could to contribute to the government.
She likened her campaign to a very long job interview, and was ready to get stuck into work.
"I certainly wasn’t up there just to fill the space.
"I wanted to be up there to get some things done in areas that I’ve got some experience in."
Mrs Simmonds was the Southern Institute of Technology chief executive from 1997 to October 2020, remaining a vocal champion of the facility during her time in politics, and standing firmly against its absorption into Te Pūkenga.
"It’s all in the hands of [National Party leader Christopher Luxon] and what he decides he wants to do with me there.
"I’m hopeful that I’ll get an opportunity to work on that, and work on it very quickly, because it needs to be dealt with very quickly," she said.
She was under no illusion on the extent of the work ahead.
"I’m not underestimating how tough it’s going to be ... the Te Pūkenga thing, the economy.
"We’re going to have to work really hard.
"It’s a very difficult financial situation we’re in, so we’ve got a lot of hard work in front of us."
As Dr Craig looks to exit parliament, she said she had appreciated working as the Labour list MP for the past six years.
She said she left a message congratulating Mrs Simmonds on the outcome the night before and looked forward to speaking with her in due course.
"I’ve been really passionate about Invercargill, and I know she has too, and I think there’s a lot of work that we need to be continuing just in the way of supporting people with high cost of living and environmental impacts — so I hope that she will be working hard in many of those areas."
