Wellington Central

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Wellington Central is an electorate of New Zealand, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Its current MP is Labour's Marian Hobbs.

Wellington Central covers the central city and its suburban periphery, stretching from Karori, Wilton and Wadestown in the west, to the summit of Mount Victoria in the east, and down to a boundary with Rongotai near Wellington Hospital. Prior to the 1999 election, its boundaries extended further north to include the affluent suburbs of Ngaio and Khandallah. Wellington Central is one of the most affluent and well-educated constituencies in New Zealand. It is home to many government agencies, as well as the Parliamentary complex and two universities.

1 History
2 Election results
- 2.1 2005 election
3 External links

[edit] History

Wellington Central was established in 1905 when the multi-member urban electorate City of Wellington was replaced by three new seats: Wellington East, Wellington North and Wellington Central. It was nominally abolished in 1993, when a redistribution moved its boundary west, resulting in the new name of Wellington-Karori. Three years later, a new, larger Wellington Central was created as one of the 65 original MMP constituiences in time for the 1996 election. A prominent holder of the seat was Labour Party leader Peter Fraser, who was Prime Minister from 1940-49.

The first elected MMP representative was ACT Party leader Richard Prebble, controversially elected in 1996 after National Party leader Jim Bolger indicated that National voters should give their electorate vote to Prebble rather than to National's candidate, in order for ACT to get into parliament. Prebble would eventually became the third representative from Wellington Central in three elections to face defeat after a single term in office. Labour's Marian Hobbs has held the seat since defeating Prebble in 1999.

A documentary, Campaign, was produced by Tony Sutorius about the events surrounding the 1996 election campaign in the electorate.[1]

[edit] Members of Parliament for old Wellington Central seat

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office	Reason
Francis Fisher	New Liberal	1905		-
Francis Fisher	Independent	1908		-
Francis Fisher	Reform	1911	1914	defeated
Robert Fletcher	Liberal	1914	1918	died
Peter Fraser	Labour	1918 by-election, 1919, 1922, 1925, 1928,1931, 1935, 1938, 1943	1946	elected for Brooklyn instead
Charles Henry Chapman	Labour	1946, 1949, 1951	1946	retired
Frank Kitts	Labour	1954, 1949, 1957	1960	defeated
Dan Riddiford	National	1960, 1963, 1966, 1969	1972	retired
Ken Comber	National	1972, 1975, 1978	1981	defeated
Fran Wilde	Labour	1981, 1984, 1987, 1990	1992	resigned to become mayor of Wellington City
Chris Laidlaw	Labour	1992 (byelection)	1993	seat abolished, defeated in Wellington-Karori

[edit] Members of Parliament for Wellington-Karori

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office	Reason
Pauline Gardiner¹	National	1993	1996	seat abolished, defeated in Wellington Central

¹Pauline Gardiner defected to United New Zealand in 1995.

[edit] Members of Parliament for MMP-era Wellington Central seat

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office	Reason
Richard Prebble	ACT	1996	1999	Defeated
Marian Hobbs	Labour	1999, 2002, 2005	-	incumbent

[edit] List MPs from Wellington Central

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

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office
Richard Prebble	ACT	1999	2005²
Sue Kedgley	Greens	1999	current MP
Stephen Franks	ACT	1999	2005
Mark Blumsky	National	2005	current MP

²Prebble did not re-contest Wellington Central at the 2002 election

[edit] Election results

[edit] 2005 election

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Party Votes	%
99 MP	-	-	-	8	0.02
ACT	Stephen Franks	1254	3.06	848	2.05
Alliance	Kane O'Connell	79	0.19	35	0.08
Christian Heritage	-	-	-	24	0.06
Democrats	-	-	-	10	0.02
Destiny	-	-	-	67	0.16
Direct Democracy	-	-	-	2	0.002
Family Rights PP	-	-	-	3	0.01
Green	Sue Kedgley	3737	9.12	6530	15.75
Labour	Y Marian Hobbs	20199	49.32	17936	43.26
Legalise Cannabis	Michael Appleby	426	1.04	98	0.24
Libertarianz	Bernard Darnton	79	0.19	42	0.01
Māori Party	-	-	-	168	0.41
National	Mark Blumsky	14019	34.23	13513	32.59
NZ First	-	-	-	707	1.73
One NZ	-	-	-	1	0.002
Progressive	David Somerset	173	0.42	309	0.75
Republic of NZ	-	-	-	4	0.01
United	Fiona McKenzie	593	1.45	1068	2.50
total valid votes		41,459		40,954
Labour hold	Majority	6,180