Labour campaign chair Megan Woods says it's too early to say what went wrong as the party was dumped from power and whether a more ambitious policy platform would have helped its prospects.
On last night's results National and ACT have a slim 61-seat majority as Labour lost a host of MPs, including the vastly experience Nanaia Mahuta and Michael Wood.
Depending on special votes and other factors, the right bloc may need to call on NZ First's eight seats to cement its place in charge.
Regardless, Woods said the result wasn't one they "hoped for and wanted".
"As you say, politics can be brutal," she told Jack Tame on Q+A. "I think Chris [Hipkins] summed it up really well last night – tides that come in also go out and I think that mood for change was just so strong out there, that was something coming through really clearly."
She said it was too early to point the finger at any one factor in Labour's defeat, picking up just 26.9% of the party vote and losing a host of electorate seats, and wouldn't say if a more ambitious platform on things like tax may have helped.
Voting numbers were down about 4% on 2020 and it was clear the tough times Auckland had been through had hurt the party there, while the losses of Wood and Mahuta were huge, she said.
"We've lost some friends and some colleagues, and we're going to have to regroup."
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