Rotorua is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Rotorua is Todd McClay of the National Party,[1] who won the seat in the 2008 general election from incumbent Labour MP Steve Chadwick.
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The Rotorua electorate is positioned in the Bay of Plenty region in the central North Island. It is dominated by the town of Rotorua, and also contains the Eastern Bay of Plenty towns of Kawerau, Murupara and Galatea, the last two of which are located on the outskirts of Te Urewera National Park. In 2008, its boundaries were extended to the geographical bay, with the addition of coastline stretching from a cluster of rural towns including Pukehina and Maketu to the outskirts of Te Puke.
Over forty per cent of the population of Rotorua is under the age of thirty, much of this because thirty-seven per cent of the seat's residents are Māori, who are on the whole younger than the national average (22.7 years old versus a national average of 35.9).[2] There are also fewer voters earning over $30,000 per year, with the majority of workers coming from working class and semi-skilled professionals. Rotorua also has more unemployed people (6.5%) than most electorates, being ranked 52nd in the nation.
A seat based around Rotorua has been a part of the New Zealand electoral landscape since the 1919 election, with a gap 1946 - 1954. Previously the city was in the Bay of Plenty electorate in 1908, then (just) in the Tauranga electorate in 1911 and 1914.
From 1919, it has moved from being a marginal seat that twice favoured the Labour candidate, to being home to two six-term National MPs. With the advent of Mixed Member Proportional voting in 1996, the Rotorua seat was greatly expanded to include areas previously part of the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Tarawera seats. Both Tarawera and Rotorua were safe National Party seats, and in the ensuing battle for the nomination, incumbents Paul East and Max Bradford faced off for a nomination eventually secured by Bradford (with East getting a high List position).
Despite both seats being reasonably loyal to the National Party, Bradford's tenure as MP for Rotorua was just three years, before being ousted by Labour MP Steve Chadwick. Chadwick's initial majority of 4,978 blew out to over 7,500 in 2002 before it was reined in to just 662 in 2005, as the National Party consolidated the centre-right vote, with its biggest gains being in the provincial North Island. In 2005, Chadwick's party was less popular than their candidate, coming 1,645 votes behind National.
In 2008 Chadwick was defeated by National candidate Todd McClay who won the seat with a majority of 5067. In the 2011 election McClay again returned as the Member for Rotorua increasing his majority to 7,357.
Rotorua is also a seat where the New Zealand First party does well, with its biggest appeal among provincial New Zealanders, and as results in 1996 indicate, Māori: in the three most recent elections , New Zealand First has polled around three per cent higher in Rotorua than it did in the rest of New Zealand.
Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.
| Name | Party | Elected | Left Office | Reason |
| Frank Hockly | Reform | 1919, 1922, 1925 | 1928 | defeated |
| Cecil Clinkard | United | 1928, 1931 | 1935 | defeated |
| Alexander Moncur | Labour | 1935, 1938 | 1943 | defeated |
| Geoffrey Sim | National | 1943 | 1946 | electorate abolished; contested Waikato instead |
| Ray Boord | Labour | 1954, 1957 | 1960 | defeated |
| Harry Lapwood | National | 1960, 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975 | 1978 | retired |
| Paul East | National | 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1993 | 1996 | list only candidate at 1996 election |
| Max Bradford | National | 1996 | 1999 | defeated |
| Steve Chadwick | Labour | 1999, 2002, 2005 | 2008 | defeated |
| Todd McClay | National | 2008, 2011 | Incumbent | |
Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Rotorua electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.
| Name | Party | First Elected | Left Office | Contested Rotorua |
| Max Bradford | National | 1990 | 1999 | 1996 (successful), 1999 |
| Steve Chadwick | Labour | 1999 | 2008 | 1999, 2002, 2005 (All successful), 2008 |
| General Election 2011: Rotorua | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes: |
Green background denotes an incumbent. |
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| Party | Candidate | Notes | List # | Source | |
| Labour | Stephanie Chadwick | Incumbent 1999-2008, list MP since 2008 | 34 | [3][4] | |
| National | Todd McClay | Incumbent since 2008 | 47 | [3][5] | |
| Mana | Grant Rogers | 17 | [3][6] | ||
| Conservative | Daryl Smith | [3][7] | |||
| NZ First | Fletcher Tabuteau | 11 | [3][8] | ||
| Libertarianz | Fred Stevens | Announced, but not on final candidate list. | [3][9] |
Electorate (as at 11 November 2011): 42,548[10]
| General Election 2008: Rotorua[11] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
| National | Todd McClay | 17,700 | 53.91 | +15.31 | 16,836 | 50.35 | +8.46 | ||
| Labour | Steve Chadwick | 12,635 | 38.48 | -2.29 | 10,044 | 30.04 | -6.63 | ||
| Green | Raewyn Saville | 1,665 | 5.07 | +1.36 | 1,666 | 4.98 | +1.21 | ||
| Kiwi | Daryl Smith | 365 | 1.11 | - | 183 | 0.55 | - | ||
| United Future | Arthur Solomon | 241 | 0.73 | -6.22 | 282 | 0.84 | -2.12 | ||
| RAM | Grant Rogers | 145 | 0.44 | - | 24 | 0.07 | - | ||
| Libertarianz | Fred Stevens | 82 | 0.25 | - | 15 | 0.04 | +0.01 | ||
| NZ First | - | 2,122 | 6.35 | -2.89 | |||||
| ACT | - | 879 | 2.63 | +1.44 | |||||
| Māori | - | 596 | 1.78 | +0.22 | |||||
| Progressive | - | 200 | 0.60 | -0.26 | |||||
| Family Party | - | 193 | 0.58 | - | |||||
| Bill and Ben | - | 186 | 0.56 | - | |||||
| Legalise Cannabis | - | 147 | 0.44 | +0.18 | |||||
| Alliance | - | 33 | 0.10 | +0.03 | |||||
| Pacific | - | 13 | 0.04 | - | |||||
| Workers Party | - | 8 | 0.02 | - | |||||
| Democrats | - | 7 | 0.02 | -0.03 | |||||
| RONZ | - | 4 | 0.01 | -0.02 | |||||
| Informal votes | 364 | 154 | |||||||
| Total Valid votes | 32,833 | 33,438 | |||||||
| National gain from Labour | Majority | 5,065 | 15.43 | +13.25 | |||||
| General Election 2005: Rotorua[12] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
| Labour | Steve Chadwick | 12,420 | 40.77 | -10.63 | 11,350 | 36.67 | |||
| National | Gil Stebhens | 11,758 | 38.60 | +14.88 | 12,965 | 41.89 | |||
| United Future | Russell Judd | 2119 | 6.96 | 916 | 2.96 | ||||
| NZ First | Fletche Tabuteau | 2055 | 6.75 | 2860 | 9.24 | ||||
| Green | Raewyn Saville | 1131 | 3.71 | 1168 | 3.77 | ||||
| Destiny | Elaine Herbert | 604 | 1.98 | 397 | 1.28 | ||||
| ACT | Carl Peterson | 378 | 1.24 | 367 | 1.19 | ||||
| Māori | - | 484 | 1.56 | - | |||||
| Progressive | - | 267 | 0.86 | ||||||
| Legalise Cannabis | - | 83 | 0.23 | ||||||
| Alliance | - | 20 | 0.06 | ||||||
| Christian Heritage | - | 16 | 0.05 | ||||||
| Democrats | - | 16 | 0.05 | ||||||
| Libertarianz | - | 10 | 0.03 | ||||||
| Family Rights | - | 9 | 0.03 | ||||||
| RONZ | - | 9 | 0.03 | ||||||
| Direct Democracy | - | 7 | 0.02 | ||||||
| One NZ | - | 5 | 0.02 | ||||||
| 99 MP | - | 4 | 0.01 | ||||||
| Informal votes | 326 | 125 | |||||||
| Total Valid votes | 30,465 | 30,950 | |||||||
| Labour hold | Majority | 662 | 2.17 | -25.51 | |||||
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