Top 20 political moments of 2017

The year has been a wild ride on a speeding bullet train.

OPINION: Jacindamania, fiscal holes, Winston Peters and utu, Metiria Turei – if it feels like only a few months ago that Andrew Little was leading the Labour Party and the election looked like a done deal, that’s because it was.

The 2017 political year has felt like a fast ride on a bullet train.

When it finally stopped, few of the politicians recognised where they were any more – National in Opposition, Labour in Government, a foreign country for both.

We political journalists were also racing to keep up, and even now the dust has barely settled.

A furious and focused National has had Labour on the defensive and scrambling in Parliament as it tries to find solace in being the largest Opposition party ever – while brooding over being ousted despite winning the popular vote.

Labour’s gear shift has been just as massive as it scrambles to find staff, move into the Beehive, and put in place workable governing arrangements and a 100-day plan surrounded by boxes and a skeleton staff that didn’t even have working email addresses for weeks.

Apparently it was not just the politicians who were caught on the hop – Parliamentary Service only made provision for 10 ministerial office changes after the election.

Moving one government out and moving another one in was not part of its plans.

But we should probably have seen the global signs; a mood for change had swept Britain out of Europe and Donald Trump into power.

At home, we all heard the rumblings of disquiet about children living in cars, poverty, house prices and immigration but there was no lightning rod for change – until suddenly there was, when Jacinda Ardern exploded onto the political scene.

In the year of political bombshells, her extraordinary rise was easily the biggest.

So here is our list of the year’s 20 biggest political stories:

* Jacindamania - few political success stories can match Ardern’s dramatic rise, from her win in the Mt Albert by-election, to Labour Party deputy, to Labour leader, and prime minister.

If I told you that all happened since February would you believe me? Yeah, nah.

* It’s not over till the fat lady sings – on 44.4 per cent to Labour’s 39, National almost won the election, but lost at MMP.

* Call of duty – Andrew Little’s bombshell decision to move aside for Ardern just eight weeks out from the election was an extraordinary act of political humility. Nobody likes losing, and admitting it is even harder.

* I did it myway – you could have heard a pin drop in the Beehive theatrette when New Zealand First leader Winston Peters arrived to announce his choice of coalition.

Ardern and National leader Bill English had to tune into their TV’s like everybody else to find out which way Peters had decided to go.

* Pride before a fall – the ripples from Metiria Turei’s benefit fraud confession are still being felt as a shattered Green Party tries to pick itself up off the mat.

It wasn’t the benefit fraud that ripped the party apart so much as Turei’s initial hubris.

* Taxing times – Labour’s water tax bungle and poorly sold families tax package pressed pause on Jacindamania just long enough for National to launch a furious fight that turned back the tide.

* When you’re in a hole keep digging – Steven Joyce’s audacious claim of an $11 billion fiscal hole in Labour’s numbers was heavily discredited but it still hurt Labour more than it hurt National. On the campaign trail anything goes, right?

* Now is the hour – the Maori Party arrived with a bang and left with a whimper. Te Ururoa Flavell’s tears on election night were a lesson about the hard choices faced by minor parties.

* Resurrection man – Bill English took National from its worst ever defeat in Opposition in 2002 to 44.4 per cent in September, just a whisker short of John Key’s 44.9 per cent in 2008. Close but no cigar.

* Gareth Morgan – Lipstick on a pig. Need we say more.

* Man alone – Green Party coleader James Shaw was everywhere on the campaign trail after losing his co-leader, Metiria Turei.

He looked shattered. But it did the trick. Shaw probably pulled the Greens back from the brink.

* Last man standing – the cleanout of party leaders was almost complete when United Future leader Peter Dunne announced he was standing down after 30-plus years in politics.

After singlehandedly keeping the United Future flame alive, Dunne saw the writing on the wall in his Ohariu seat and quit before he was ousted.

* Nothing to see here – National MPTodd Barclay was forced to quit over controversy surrounding secret recordings of his electorate staff and nearly dragged his leader down with him. English looked like a hunted man when he was asked to explain what he knew about the recordings.

* Double-0-who? – There’s nothing like a spy scandal days to rock an election campaign. National MPJin Jiang was forced to defend his former life teaching English to Chinese spies.

* Wholet the dingoes out? – Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop went feral on Jacinda Ardern and Labour’s links to an Aussie citizenship scandal. Ardern probably didn’t mind. No New Zealand politician ever lost votes scoring points off Australia.

* Born again MP– Shane Jones has resurrected his political ambitions with a move to NZ First and into Cabinet. Will he be the next NZ First leader? Only Winston knows.

* Voting with their conscience – MPs have made history by passing the first vote on a bill legalised euthanasia. Expect a highly charged and emotive debate.

* Slap down of the year – Jacinda Ardern’s response to shock jock Mark Richardson over her baby plans.

* Pretty illegal – National lost its court case against rapper Eminem over its sound track to the 2014 election.

* Change – it’s been the story of 2017. Hold onto your hats for 2018.