Te Tai Tonga

Te Tai Tonga electorate boundaries used since the 2008 election

Te Tai Tonga is a New Zealand parliamentary Māori electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Te Tai Tonga is Rino Tirikatene of the Labour Party, who in 2011 defeated Rahui Katene of the Māori Party, who in turn had won the seat in 2008.

Population centres

Te Tai Tonga is by far the largest of the seventy-one electorates of New Zealand, covering all of the South Island, Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands, all the islands in the Southern Ocean and a large part of the Wellington urban area, namely Wellington City as far as Johnsonville, and Petone, Lower Hutt and Eastbourne from the Hutt Valley. Besides Wellington, the main centres in te Tai Tonga are Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Timaru, Invercargill, Queenstown and Oamaru.

Te Tai Tonga's size was marginally decreased after a review of boundaries in 2007, when the suburbs of Naenae and Taitā were moved into Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.[1] The 2013/14 redistribution did not further alter the boundaries of the electorate.[2]

The main iwi of Te Tai Tonga are Ngāi Tahu/Kai Tahu, Kāti Mamoe and Waitaha, and in the North Island, Te Āti Awa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Ngāti Poneke,[3] which is not iwi in the traditional sense, but an urban pan-tribal grouping. The Chatham Islands was invaded by members of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, and their descendants live there today, alongside the indigenous Moriori.

History

Otakou marae, near Dunedin

The boundaries of Te Tai Tonga have a lot in common with the seat of Southern Maori that it superseded in 1996 with the introduction of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting and an increase in the number of Māori electorates from four to five. The main difference involves the separation of the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay into seats wholly located in the North Island - initially Te Puku O Te Whenua, and since 1999 Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. The voting patterns of Te Tai Tonga reflect the adaptation of Te Tai Tonga voters to proportional representation. Whetū Tirikatene-Sullivan had served as Southern Maori's representative in Parliament during the terms of five different governments and nine Prime Ministers, but the New Zealand First Party challenger Tū Wyllie tipped her out of the seat in 1996, as sixty years of Labour Party control of the (then) four Māori electorates ended.

In 1999 New Zealand First lost its electoral footing after an unpopular term in office, firstly as junior government-coalition partner and then following an internal split in the party, with much of the party's original parliamentary caucus leaving the party ("waka-jumping") to prop up the government of Jenny Shipley (although Wyllie himself did not join the breakaway group). Along with a drop in the New Zealand First party vote from thirteen to four percent nation-wide came the return of the Māori electorates to Labour and the election of Mahara Okeroa to Parliament as the Labour Party MP for Te Tai Tonga.

A political difference of opinion between many Māori and the Labour Party emerged in 2004, when Helen Clark's Labour government introduced the Seabed and Foreshore Bill, claiming the coastline for the Crown and in the process providing the catalyst for the launch of the Māori Party (7 July 2004), which went on to win four of the seven Māori seats (but not the plurality of the party votes cast in those seats) at the 2005 general election. Te Tai Tonga did not form part of this electoral sea-change, with Okeroa's majority slashed from 8,000 to around 2,500 despite his facing two fewer contenders than in 2002. At the same time, voters in the seat used the left-hand side of the ballot paper to up Labour's share of the party vote from 52 to 57 percent and to help re-elect Clark's Labour government (possibly due to the campaign stance of National Party leader Don Brash).

Rahui Katene won the electorate for the Māori Party in the 2008 election, defeating the incumbent.[4] Tirikatene won the electorate in 2011 with a margin of 1,475 votes.[5] Tirikatene significantly increased his majority in the 2014 election.[6]

Members of Parliament

Key

 NZ First    Labour    Māori    Green  

Election Winner
1996 election Tu Wyllie
1999 election Mahara Okeroa
2002 election
2005 election
2008 election Rahui Katene
2011 election Rino Tirikatene
2014 election

List MPs

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

Election Winner
2005 election Metiria Turei

Election results

2011 election

General election 2011: Te Tai Tonga[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 Green tick or Red X denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Labour Rino Tirikatene 6,786 40.62 -1.18 6,791 38.52 -11.06
Māori Red X Rahui Katene 5,311 31.79 -15.51 2,379 13.49 -8.76
Green Dora Roimata Langsbury 2,546 15.24 +4.34 2,789 15.82 +8.61
Mana Clinton Dearlove 1,360 8.14 +8.14 1,043 5.92 +5.92
Legalise Cannabis Emma-Jane Mihaere Kingi 703 4.21 +4.21 230 1.30 +0.26
National   2,631 14.92 +3.78
NZ First   1,544 8.76 +3.20
Conservative   120 0.68 +0.68
United Future   43 0.24 +0.05
ACT   32 0.18 -0.48
Democrats   16 0.09 +0.06
Alliance   7 0.04 -0.03
Libertarianz   4 0.02 +0.003
Informal votes 840 268
Total Valid votes 16,706 17,629
Labour gain from Māori Majority 1,475 8.83 +14.34

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 31,933[7]

2008 election

General election 2008: Te Tai Tonga[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 Green tick or Red X denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Māori Rahui Katene 9,011 47.30 4,414 22.26
Labour Red X Mahara Okeroa 7,962 41.80 9,833 49.58
Green Dora Roimata Langsbury 2,076 10.90 1,430 7.21
National   2,210 11.14
NZ First   1,102 5.56
Legalise Cannabis   207 1.04
Bill and Ben   158 0.80
ACT   131 0.66
Progressive   122 0.62
Family Party   76 0.38
Kiwi   69 0.35
United Future   38 0.19
Alliance   14 0.07
Workers Party   13 0.07
Democrats   6 0.03
Libertarianz   4 0.02
Pacific   4 0.02
RAM   2 0.01
RONZ   0 0.00
Informal votes 656 261
Total Valid votes 19,049 19,833
Māori gain from Labour Majority 1,049 5.51

2005 election

General election 2005: Te Tai Tonga[9]

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 tick or Red X denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Labour Green tick Mahara Okeroa 9,015 47.23 -15.94 11,485 57.89
Māori Monte Ohia 6,512 34.12 +34.12 3,481 17.55
Green Metiria Turei 2,296 12.03 1,283 6.47
Progressive Russell Caldwell 705 3.69 169 0.85
Destiny Maru Samuel 559 2.93 235 1.18
National   1,462 7.37
NZ First   1,240 6.25
United Future   211 1.06
Legalise Cannabis   159 0.80
ACT   58 0.29
Alliance   14 0.07
Christian Heritage   9 0.05
Democrats   8 0.04
Family Rights   7 0.04
Libertarianz   4 0.02
One NZ   4 0.02
99 MP   3 0.02
Direct Democracy   3 0.02
RONZ   3 0.02
Informal votes 655 322
Total Valid votes 19,087 19,838
Labour hold Majority 2,503 13.11 -38.99

1996 election

General election 1996: Te Tai Tonga[10][11][12]

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 tick or Red X denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
NZ First Tutekawa Wyllie 7,657 37.99 6,576 32.47
Labour Red X Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan 7,372 36.58 7,167 35.39
Alliance Hone Kaiwai 1,916 9.51 2,290 11.31
style="background-color: style="background:#DDDDDD; width:{{{2}}}px"| Independent Eva Rickard 1,220 6.05
National Cliff Bedwell 1,115 5.53 1,732 8.55
style="background-color: style="background:#DDDDDD; width:{{{2}}}px"| Independent Honty Whaanga-Morris 873 4.33
Legalise Cannabis   896 4.42
Mana Māori   667 3.29
Christian Coalition   441 2.18
ACT   232 1.15
United NZ   52 0.26
McGillicuddy Serious   37 0.18
Te Tawharau 35 0.17
Progressive Green 33 0.16
Animals First   28 0.14
Green Society 22 0.11
Natural Law   12 0.06
Superannuitants & Youth 9 0.04
Ethnic Minority Party 7 0.03
Conservatives 5 0.02
Libertarianz   4 0.02
Advance New Zealand 3 0.01
Asia Pacific United 2 0.01
Informal votes 279 182
Total Valid votes 20,153 20,250
NZ First win new seat Majority 285 1.41

References

  1. Report of the Representation Commission 2007 (PDF). Representation Commission. 14 September 2007. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  2. Report of the Representation Commission 2014 (PDF). Representation Commission. 4 April 2014. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  3. Te Puni Kōkiri - In Your Region - Te Whanganui ā Tara
  4. Macintosh, Rob (13 September 2011). "Battle for Maori seat is under way". The Marlborough Express. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "Official Count Results -- Te Tai Tonga". Electoral Commission. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  6. "Official Count Results -- Te Tai Tonga". Electoral Commission. 21 September 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  7. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  8. 2008 election results
  9. 2005 election results
  10. "Electorate Candidate and Party Votes Recorded at Each Polling Place - Te Tai Tonga". Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  11. Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties
  12. Party Lists of Unsuccessful Registered Parties

External links

Coordinates: 43°36′00″S 172°00′00″E / 43.6000°S 172.0000°E