page_title: 2011 New Zealand Labour Party leadership election
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 New Zealand Labour Party leadership election / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Labour leader Phil Goff addresses a crowd in Hamilton, New Zealand.
context_page_description: The 2011 New Zealand Labour Party leadership election was held on 13 December 2011 to choose the thirteenth Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. A Deputy Leader and a senior and a junior whip were also elected. Following the Labour Party's loss in the 2011 general election, leader Phil Goff and deputy leader Annette King resigned, prompting the leadership election, which was conducted as a secret ballot of the Labour caucus.
  David Cunliffe, David Shearer and David Parker stood for the leadership, and Nanaia Mahuta and Grant Robertson contested the deputy position. Cunliffe and Mahuta ran as a ticket. During the campaign Parker pulled out of the race and endorsed Shearer. Shearer and Robertson won the votes for their respective positions. Chris Hipkins and Darien Fenton were chosen as the senior and junior whips, respectively.
context_section_description: At the 2008 general election, the Fifth Labour Government, led by Helen Clark, was defeated by John Key's National Party. Following Clark's election-night resignation, Phil Goff was unanimously elected as the party's leader, with Annette King as deputy, and Darren Hughes and Steve Chadwick as the senior and junior whips, respectively. The party lost more support in the 26 November 2011 general election; its popular vote dipped to 27% – its worst-ever result under the mixed-member proportional representation system – and its number of MPs was reduced from forty-three to thirty-four. On 29 November 2011, Goff and King announced their resignations, effective 13 December. New whips also had to be chosen because Rick Barker (who replaced Hughes as the senior whip in April 2011, following Hughes leaving Parliament) and Chadwick were not re-elected to Parliament.
caption: The leadership election followed Phil Goff's resignation as party leader.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "u7020,S7020", "Image Software": "Version 1.0", "Image DateTime": "2010:03:18 17:41:41", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "932", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "53/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:03:18 17:41:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:03:18 17:41:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "317/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "279/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3968", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2976", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "158", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}