The Mt Albert by-election was a heavy defeat for National, and correspondingly a big victory for Labour. The advent of the highly credentialed David Shearer to the Labour Caucus was celebrated as a triumph both for the new MP, and his leader Phil Goff. Some within the Caucus say the huge margin Shearer secured provides proof Labour is on the way back. For National, it seems there is little comfort it can draw from the outcome. Its candidate, Melissa Lee, who had been regarded as a potential star, was virtually extinguished. National’s vote tally was only a few percent above the level gained by the Greens’ Russel Norman.

National may have suffered some collateral damage from the Richard Worth affair. But some commentators believe the Mt Albert by-election could induce the kind of complacency in Labour, which could prove fatal to its 2011 chances. If some MPs thought the party had succeeded in “re-connecting” with voters, they might be persuaded they now don’t have to do the hard policy work essential for an Opposition in rebuilding after a general election defeat. Headlines such as the one The Dominion-Post carried on an editorial this week, “Labour soiled by its own muck,” underline how counter-productive it could be for a leader to be associated with raking over the Worth scandal. By comparison John Key, as the Dom-Post put it, looked Prime Ministerial.

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