So Mr Shearer (my pick for the Labour leadership incidentally) will be spending his Christmas holidays traipsing around the country, attempting to reconnect with middle New Zealand. Remarkably similar to three years ago, when Mr Goff and his big red bus full of the newly-defeated took their message of rejuvenation to the Heartlands.
Of course, three years ago "the phone was off the hook", as many a political commentator has noted. Three years on, will it be any different? The left/right divide may still be remarkably close (National has only one seat majority despite the stratospheric nature of its party vote), but the voters have delivered Labour the emphatic verdict that the party is deemed to be largely irrelevant.
So what can Mr Shearer do to change that?
My hope is he will at least retain the big picture policies that Labour took to the hustings in 2011 - a capital gains tax and an increase in the age of superannuation. These were policies that sharply differentiated Labour from National, and which most New Zealanders grudgingly agreed were necessary. If Labour keeps those policies, it sends a message that Labour is serious about confronting the big issues; to suddenly abandon said policies sends only the message that being elected is everything, and such a message is not necessarily one that will endear the party to those New Zealanders who have abandoned Labour in favour of National or the smaller parties (in particular the Greens).
Mr Shearer has said that all Labour policy will come under the microscope. We shall see which policies end up being surgically removed...
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