Waitakere (New Zealand electorate)

Map showing extent of the Waitakere electorate from the 2008 election until its abolition in 2014

Waitakere was a parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. The electorate was first formed for the 1946 election and existed until 2014, with breaks from 1969 to 1978 and from 1987 to 1993. The last MP for Waitakere was Paula Bennett of the National Party, who had held this position since the 2008 election.

Population centres

The 1941 census had been postponed due to World War II, so the 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The North Island gained a further two electorates from the South Island due to faster population growth. The abolition of the country quota through the Electoral Amendment Act, 1945 reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 27 electorates were abolished, eight former electorates were re-established, and 19 electorates were created for the first time, including Waitakere.[1]

Waitakere was based around the western suburbs of Auckland. Given the nature of population growth in greater Auckland, and the addition of three new seats in Auckland, the boundaries of Waitakere moved around at every electoral redistribution; in 1999, they were moved northwards as far as Helensville before being pulled back south three years later. In its last boundaries before abolition, the electorate included the Waitakere City suburbs of Henderson, Ranui and Swanson before heading west over the Waitakere Ranges to Piha.

Waitakere was first abolished in the 1967 electoral redistribution, which resulted from the Electoral Act 1965 that fixed the number of South Island electorates at 25. As a result, three additional electorates were created in the North Island, and one additional in the South Island. One of those new electorates was Henderson, which took over most of Waitakere's area. These changes came into effect with the 1969 election.[2] Henderson existed for three electoral cycles and was abolished again through the 1977 electoral redistribution, when Waitakere was recreated; this came into effect with the 1978 election.[3]

The 1987 electoral redistribution took the continued population growth in the North Island into account, and two additional general electorates were created, bringing the total number of electorates to 97. In the South Island, the shift of population to Christchurch had continued.[4] Overall, three electorates were newly created, three electorates were recreated, and four electorates were abolished (including Waitakere). All of those electorates were in the North Island. Changes in the South Island were restricted to boundary changes.[5] These changes came into effect with the 1987 election.[6] Waitakere was abolished from 1984 to 1993, and then abolished again in 2014 to make way for new electorates Kelston and Upper Harbour.[7][8]

History

The Waitakere electorate existed from the 1946 election to 1969, and from the 1978 election to 1987. This seat was held in an unbroken run by Labour for the whole of these two periods.

The name Waitakere was reclaimed and applied to a new seat in 1993, which was expanded ahead of the introduction of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting in 1996 election at the expense of the former seats of Henderson and Titirangi.[9]

A high turnout for the Alliance in West Auckland in 1996 split the left wing vote and denied then-Titirangi MP and Waitakere candidate Suzanne Sinclair re-election to Parliament, to the benefit of Marie Hasler, also a former Titirangi MP. In 2002 Lynne Pillay was elected over Alliance leader Laila Harré. In 2005 Pillay was re-elected with a five thousand vote majority over National's Paula Bennett. In a nationwide swing towards the National Party in 2008 Bennett managed to unseat Pillay, with a majority of 632.

Carmel Sepuloni was selected by the Labour Party to challenge Paula Bennett for her seat in 2011.[10] On election night, Paula Bennett was thought to have held the seat by 349 votes but after counting 3,130 special votes it was determined that Carmel Sepuloni had won by 11 votes. The National Party requested a judicial recount due to the tightness of the competition (Labour did the same in Christchurch Central, where the Labour candidate was beaten by 45 votes[11]). The outcome of Waitakere's recount was released on 17 December 2011, returning Paula Bennett with a nine-vote majority.[12][13] The margin was two orders of magnitude smaller than the number of voters who voted while not being on the electoral role, 393.[14]

In November 2013, it was proposed that the Waitakere electorate be abolished for the 2014 general election.[15] The electorate was mainly subsumed by Helensville, Te Atatū, and the new Kelston electorate, with a small section moving to the new Upper Harbour electorate.[7]

Members of Parliament

Key

  Labour     National  

Election Winner
1946 election Rex Mason
1949 election
1951 election
1954 election
1957 election
1960 election
1963 election Martyn Finlay
1966 election
(Electorate abolished 1969–1978, see Henderson)
1978 election Ralph Maxwell
1981 election
1984 election
(Electorate abolished 1987–1993, see Titirangi and West Auckland)
1993 election Brian Neeson
1996 election Marie Hasler
1999 election Brian Neeson (2nd period)
2002 election Lynne Pillay
2005 election
2008 election Paula Bennett
2011 election
(Electorate abolished in 2014)

List MPs

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Waitakere electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

Election Winner
1999 election Jonathan Hunt
2005 election Paula Bennett
2008 election Lynne Pillay

Election results

2011 election

Due to the closeness of the election in Waitakere a judicial recount was undertaken on 16 December and it was confirmed that Bennett has beaten Sepuloni by nine votes on 17 December.

General election 2011: Waitakere [16]

Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list.
Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member.
A Green tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
National Green tickY Paula Bennett 13,465 44.74 -0.16 12,533 40.27 -0.95
Labour Carmel Sepuloni 13,456 44.71 +1.88 11,579 37.21 -2.57
Green Stephen Tollestrup 1,855 6.16 +0.67 3,308 10.63 +4.16
Conservative Danny Mountain 611 2.03 +2.03 753 2.42 +2.42
Legalise Cannabis Jeff Lye 331 1.10 +1.10 166 0.53 +0.01
Mana Sue Bradford 322 1.06 +1.06 174 0.56 +0.56
Libertarianz Peter Osborne 55 0.18 +0.18 33 0.11 +0.06
NZ First   2,011 6.46 +2.91
ACT   259 0.83 -2.56
Māori   168 0.54 -0.23
United Future   125 0.40 -0.31
Alliance   9 0.03 -0.10
Democrats   4 0.01 -0.01
Informal votes 652 300
Total Valid votes 30,095 31,122
National hold Majority 9 0.03 -2.04

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,143[17]

2008 election

General election 2008: Waitakere[18]

Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list.
Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member.
A Green tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
National Paula Bennett 13,704 44.90 +11.83 12,952 41.22 +7.05
Labour Red XN Lynne Pillay 13,072 42.83 -5.98 12,498 39.77 -6.88
Green Gary Stewart 1,676 5.49 +0.05 2,032 6.47 +0.54
NZ First Craig McNair 597 1.96 -2.36 1,117 3.55 -2.07
ACT John G Riddell 482 1.58 +0.25 1,067 3.40 +2.07
Pacific Fia Misa Tupou 448 1.47 +1.47 398 1.27 +1.27
Family Party Michael Kidd 358 1.17 +1.17 136 0.43 +0.43
Independent Rita Beckmannflay 107 0.35 +0.35
Alliance Sandra Ethell 78 0.26 +0.06 42 0.13 +0.02
Māori   241 0.77 +0.10
Progressive   225 0.72 -0.44
United Future   224 0.71 -2.23
Bill and Ben   168 0.53 +0.53
Legalise Cannabis   166 0.53 +0.26
Kiwi   106 0.34 +0.34
Workers Party   15 0.05 +0.05
Libertarianz   14 0.04 +0.02
RAM   10 0.03 +0.03
Democrats   7 0.02 +0.004
RONZ   5 0.02 ±0.00
Informal votes 300 149
Total Valid votes 30,522 31,423
National gain from Labour Majority 632 2.07 +17.81


2005 election

General election 2005: Waitakare[19]

Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list.
Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member.
A Green tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Labour Green tickY Lynne Pillay 15,325 48.81 +10.42 14,988 46.65
National Paula Bennett 10,383 33.07 +13.41 10,976 34.16
Green David Clendon 1,709 5.44 1,903 5.92
NZ First Brendon Stewart 1,354 4.31 1,806 5.62
United Future Hannah Baral 1,035 3.30 944 2.94
ACT John Riddell 416 1.33 427 1.33
Destiny Stan Green 394 1.25 227 0.71
Progressive David Parkyn 293 0.93 370 1.15
Māori Charles Joe 272 0.87 213 0.66
Direct Democracy Alona Covich 79 0.25 33 0.10
Family Rights John Ulberg 74 0.24 28 0.09
Alliance Sandra Ethell 62 0.20 -27.37 36 0.11
Legalise Cannabis   87 0.27
Christian Heritage   58 0.18
Libertarianz   8 0.02
99 MP   7 0.02
Democrats   6 0.02
One NZ   5 0.02
RONZ   5 0.02
Informal votes 271 127
Total Valid votes 31,396 32,127
Labour hold Majority 4942 15.74 +7.08

Notes

  1. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 91–96.
  2. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 106, 111.
  3. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 115, 119.
  4. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 127f.
  5. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 123–128.
  6. ↑ McRobie 1989, p. 127.
  7. 1 2 Electoral boundary maps redrawn. 3 News NZ. 21 November 2013.
  8. ↑ Bennett to contest new seat. Radio NZ. 21 November 2013.
  9. ↑ "Waitakere 55" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Labour chooses Waitakere candidate". Television New Zealand. Newstalk ZB. 21 March 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
  11. ↑ Backhouse, Matthew (10 December 2011). "John key Calls for Judicial Recount". The New Zealand Herald. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  12. ↑ "Paula Bennett reclaims Waitakere". The New Zealand Herald. 16 December 2011.
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ Powley, Kathryn (18 December 2011). "Questions over Waitakere vote". nzherald.co.nz. Retrieved 18 December 2011. 'Those 393, not only were they not on the roll in Waitakere, but they weren't enrolled anywhere.'
  15. ↑ Gower, Patrick (20 November 2013). "Boundary changes could swing the election". 3 News. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  16. ↑ Waitakere results, 2011
  17. ↑ "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  18. ↑ 2008 election results
  19. ↑ election result Waitakare 2005

References

External links

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