Chris Hipkins

Well, I guess my political career up until this term of Parliament was a game of two halves.

I spent the first nine years as an opposition MP and there weren't that many highlights.

Opposition's tough because you don't really get to make a difference in the way that you really want to.

People go into politics to make a difference and it's hard to make a difference as an opposition member of Parliament because you don't really have any of the levers of power to really be able to do much.

Then we spent six years in government.

You know, clearly at a personal level, nothing much tops being sworn in as prime minister.

That was a big day.

I never imagined that that was going to happen.

Until Jacinda told me that she was about to quit, I just never would have imagined.

It was kind of a bit weird.

So she told me just before Christmas in 2022 and Grant was there as well.

And he said, oh, look, I probably don't want to do it.

But I just always assumed that when Jacinda left that Grant would do it.

And so we went away for the summer holidays and we were all thinking about it.

And then Grant rang me up not long after Christmas and said, yeah, I'm definitely not going to do it and you should do it.

And that was a moment.

I still remember that phone call vividly.

I remember staring into space for about 20 minutes after that thinking, did that just happen?

And then, of course, it was still up to the Labour MPs to choose who they wanted to be the leader.

And I put my hand up and ultimately it was unanimous.