West Coast-Tasman

Map showing extent of electorate for the 2008 and 2011 elections

West Coast-Tasman is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate. It is the largest General electorate by land area. As of 2011 it is held by Damien O'Connor MP.

Population centres

The electorate includes the following population centres:

• Collingwood
• Greymouth
• Hokitika
• Motueka
• Reefton
• Ross
• Takaka
• Wakefield
• Westport

History

The electorate was formed in 1996 for MMP by combining the former Tasman and West Coast electorates.

Damien O'Connor was the first representative and he held the electorate until the 2008 general election, when he was beaten by National candidate Chris Auchinvole, who had previously been a list MP. Auchinvole's majority was 971.^[1] His position on the Labour Party list meant that O'Connor couldn't return to Parliament immediately. When the list MP Michael Cullen retired in May 2009, O'Connor regained his position as Member of the House of Representatives because he was the highest-ranked candidate on the list not already an MP.^[2] In contrast to the overall trend, he regained the electorate in the 2011 election.^[3]

Former Mayor of Westland District, Maureen Pugh, is going to contest the electorate in the next election for the National Party.^[4]

Members of Parliament

West Coast-Tasman has been represented by two electorate MPs so far:

Key

  Labour     National     Green  

List MPs

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

¹In the 2008 election Damien O'Connor's list position of 37 meant he was not returned until Michael Cullen resigned in May 2009.

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: West Coast-Tasman[5]
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Damien O'Connor		15,753	47.51	+3.85	9,200	27.25	-6.22
	National	N Chris Auchinvole		13,214	39.85	-6.66	15,462	45.79	+1.72
	Green	Kevin Hague		2,123	6.40	+0.23	4,787	14.18	+3.32
	Conservative	Claire Holley		623	1.88	+1.88	1,075	3.18	+3.18
	ACT	Allan Birchfield		487	1.47	+1.47	278	0.82	-1.34
	United Future	Clyde Graf		454	1.37	+0.63	468	1.39	+0.23
	Legalise Cannabis	Steven Wilkinson		450	1.36	-0.47	249	0.74	+0.14
	Youth	Robert Terry		52	0.16	+0.01
	NZ First						1,931	5.72	+1.91
	Māori						145	0.43	-0.20
	Mana						91	0.27	+0.27
	Democrats						33	0.10	-0.01
	Libertarianz						31	0.09	+0.03
	Alliance						16	0.05	-0.04
Informal votes				628			288
Total Valid votes				33,156			33,766
	Labour gain from National		Majority	2,539	7.66	+10.51

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 44,556^[6]

2008 election

General Election 2008: West Coast-Tasman[7]
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Chris Auchinvole		15,844	46.51	+5.59	15,187	44.07
	Labour	N Damien O'Connor		14,873	43.66	-4.03	11,532	33.46
	Green	Kevin Hague		2,102	6.17	+1.38	3,740	10.85
	Legalise Cannabis	Steven Wilkinson		623	1.83	+0.21	206	0.60
	McGillicuddy Serious	Steve Richards		259	0.76
	United Future	Jocelyn Smith		252	0.74	-1.33	398	1.15
	NZ Representative Party	Reg Turner		62	0.18
	Aotearoa NZ Youth Party	Robert Terry		50	0.15
	NZ First						1,313	3.81
	ACT						744	2.16
	Kiwi						349	1.01
	Progressive						292	0.85
	Bill and Ben						243	0.71
	Māori						216	0.63
	Family Party						122	0.35
	Democrats						37	0.11
	Alliance						29	0.08
	Libertarianz						20	0.06
	Workers Party						14	0.04
	Pacific						10	0.03
	RAM						5	0.01
	RONZ						3	0.01
Informal votes				366			223
Total Valid votes				34,065			34,460
	National gain from Labour		Majority	971	2.85

2005 election

General election 2005: West Coast-Tasman[8]
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Damien O'Connor		15,178	47.69	-6.14	12,012	37.22
	National	Chris Auchinvole		13,024	40.93	+13.05	12,776	39.59
	Green	Richard Davies		1,526	4.80		2,913	9.03
	United Future	Milton Osborne		658	2.07		977	3.03
	Legalise Cannabis	Steve Wilkinson		515	1.62		174	0.54
	Progressive	Lew Holland		358	1.12		558	1.73
	Christian Heritage	Derek Blight		314	0.99		131	0.41
	ACT	Kevin Gill		251	0.79		348	1.08
	NZ First						2,029	6.29
	Māori						118	0.37
	Destiny						111	0.34
	Democrats						30	0.09
	Libertarianz						21	0.07
	Alliance						20	0.06
	Family Rights						12	0.04
	One NZ						11	0.03
	99 MP						10	0.03
	Direct Democracy						10	0.03
	RONZ						10	0.03
Informal votes				354			131
Total Valid votes				31,824			32,271
	Labour hold		Majority	2,154	6.77	-19.18

References

External links

• Profile Parliamentary Library