Wellington Central (New Zealand electorate)

For the suburb, see Wellington Central, Wellington.

Wellington Central electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

Wellington Central is an electorate, represented by a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives of New Zealand. Its MP since November 2008 has been Labour Party's Grant Robertson.

Population centres

Through the City Single Electorates Act, 1903, the three-member electorates of the four main centres were split again, and this became effective at the end of the 15th Parliament and was thus used for the 1905 election. The City of Wellington electorate split into the Wellington East, Wellington Central, and Wellington North electorates.^[1]

As of 1999 Wellington Central covered the central city and its immediate suburban periphery, stretching from Karori, Wilton and Wadestown in the west, to the summit of Mount Victoria in the east, and southwards to a boundary with the Rongotai electorate near Wellington Hospital. Prior to the 1999 election, its boundaries extended further north to include the affluent suburbs of Ngaio and Khandallah.

Wellington Central has one of the most affluent and well-educated constituencies in New Zealand. It is home to many government agencies, as well as to the New Zealand Parliament Buildings and to two universities.

Following the 2014 boundary review, Wellington Central lost the suburb of Wadestown to the Ōhāriu electorate.

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 constituencies in time for the 1996 election. A prominent holder of the seat was Labour Party leader Peter Fraser, who was Prime Minister from 1940 to 1949.

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 Mark Thomas, 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 held the seat from 1999, when she defeated Prebble, until 2008, when she retired. Grant Robertson retained Labour's hold on the seat in 2008 and 2011.

A documentary, Campaign, produced by Tony Sutorius, highlighted the events surrounding the 1996 campaign in the electorate.

Members of Parliament

Key

New Liberal	Independent	Reform	Liberal
Labour	National	ACT	Green

Election	Winner
1905 election		Francis Fisher
1908 election
1908 election
1911 election
1914 election		Robert Fletcher
1918 by-election 1919 election 1922 election 1925 election 1928 election 1931 election 1935 election 1938 election 1943 election		Peter Fraser
1946 election 1949 election 1951 election		Charles Chapman
1954 election 1957 election		Frank Kitts
1960 election 1963 election 1966 election 1969 election		Dan Riddiford
1972 election 1975 election 1978 election		Ken Comber
1981 election 1984 election 1987 election 1990 election		Fran Wilde
1992 by-election		Chris Laidlaw
(electorate abolished 1993–1996, see Wellington-Karori)
1996 election		Richard Prebble
1999 election 2002 election 2005 election		Marian Hobbs
2008 election 2011 election 2014 election		Grant Robertson

List MPs

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.

Election	Winner
1999 election		Richard Prebble
2002 election		Stephen Franks
2002 election		Sue Kedgley
2005 election		Mark Blumsky
2005 election		Sue Kedgley
2008 election		Sue Kedgley
2008 election		Heather Roy
2011 election		Paul Foster-Bell (elected May 2013)
2014 election		James Shaw
2014 election		Paul Foster-Bell

Election results

2011 election

General election 2011: Wellington Central^[2]
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 Grant Robertson		18,836	49.15	+6.97	10,459	26.56	-8.01
	National	Paul Foster-Bell		12,460	32.51	-4.96	15,128	38.42	+3.01
	Green	James Shaw		5,225	13.63	-1.14	10,903	27.69	+7.08
	ACT	Stephen Whittington		412	1.07	-1.21	462	1.17	-2.78
	Legalise Cannabis	Michael Appleby		404	1.05	+0.05	161	0.41	+0.15
	NZ First	Ben Craven		279	0.73	+0.73	1,132	2.88	+1.35
	Pirate	Gynn Rickerby		277	0.72	+0.72
	Conservative	Paul Stipkovits		236	0.62	+0.62	270	0.69	+0.69
	Libertarianz	Reagan Cutting		69	0.18	-0.01	40	0.10	-0.01
	Alliance	Kelly Buchanan		52	0.14	+0.14	18	0.05	-0.003
	New Economics	Laurence Boomert		44	0.11	+0.11
style="background-color: style="background:#DDDDDD; width:{{{2}}}px"\|	Independent	Puhi Karena		32	0.08	+0.08
	Māori						278	0.71	-0.15
	United Future						256	0.65	-0.35
	Mana						250	0.63	+0.63
	Democrats						15	0.04	+0.03
Informal votes				411			153
Total Valid votes				38,326			39,372
	Labour hold		Majority	6,376	16.64	+11.92

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 48,316^[3]

2008 election

General election 2008: Wellington Central^[4]
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	Grant Robertson		17,046	42.18		14,244	34.57
	National	Stephen Franks		15,142	37.47		14,589	35.41
	Green	Sue Kedgley		5,971	14.78		8,494	20.62
	ACT	Heather Roy		922	2.28		1,628	3.95
	Legalise Cannabis	Michael Appleby		407	1.01		108	0.26
	United Future	Vaughan Smith		226	0.56		412	1.00
	Workers Party	Don Franks		171	0.42		38	0.09
	Progressive	David Somerset		141	0.35		272	0.66
	Kiwi	Rebekah Clement		106	0.26		84	0.20
	Libertarianz	Bernard Darnton		75	0.19		48	0.12
	RAM	Grant Brookes		61	0.15		13	0.03
style="background-color: style="background:#DDDDDD; width:{{{2}}}px"\|	Independent	Al Mansell		58	0.14	-
	RONZ	Justin Harnish		46	0.11		5	0.01
	Alliance	Richard Wallis		39	0.10		20	0.05
	NZ First						629	1.53
	Māori						351	0.85
	Bill and Ben						215	0.52
	Family Party						38	0.09
	Pacific						8	0.02
	Democrats						4	0.01
Informal votes				229			86
Total Valid votes				40,411			41,200
	Labour hold		Majority	1,904

2005 election

General election 2005: Wellington Central^[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	Y Marian Hobbs		20,199	49.32	+8.26	17,936	43.26
	National	Mark Blumsky		14,019	34.23	+4.69	13,513	32.59
	Green	Sue Kedgley		3737	9.12	-3.93	6530	15.75
	ACT	Stephen Franks		1254	3.06		848	2.05
	United Future	Fiona McKenzie		593	1.45		1068	2.58
	Legalise Cannabis	Michael Appleby		426	1.04		98	0.24
	Progressive	David Somerset		173	0.26		309	0.75
	Anti-Capitalist Alliance	Stephen Hay		107	0.26
	Libertarianz	Bernard Darnton		79	0.19		42	0.10
	Alliance	Kane O'Connell		79	0.19		35	0.08
	NZ First						707	1.71
	Māori						168	0.41
	Destiny						67	0.16
	Christian Heritage						24	0.06
	Democrats						10	0.02
	99 MP						8	0.02
	RONZ						4	0.01
	Family Rights						3	0.01
	Direct Democracy						2	0.00
	One NZ						1	0.00
Informal votes				288			86
Total Valid votes				40,954			41,459
	Labour hold		Majority	6180	15.09	+3.57

1946 election

General election, 1946: Wellington Central^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Charles Henry Chapman	6,201	57.83
	National	Agnes Louisa Weston^{[nb 1]}	4,521	42.17
Majority			1,680	15.67	+7.52
Informal votes			96	0.89	-0.60
Turnout			10,818	88.35	+7.75
Registered electors			12,245

Table footnotes:

↑ Claude Weston died suddenly on 10 November 1946 and was replaced by his wife^[7]^[8]

1943 election

General election, 1943: Wellington Central^[9]^[10]^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Fraser	6,822	46.12	-16.74
	National	Will Appleton	5,616	37.97	+0.83
	Independent	Colin Scrimgeour	2,253	15.23
	Independent	William Julius Hyde	100	0.68
Majority			1,206	8.15	-17.57
Informal votes			223	1.49	+0.89
Turnout			15,014	80.59	+6.15
Registered electors			18,629

1938 election

General election, 1938: Wellington Central^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Fraser	9,376	62.86	-6.19
	National	Will Appleton	5,539	37.14
Majority			3,837	25.73	-12.37
Informal votes			89	0.59
Turnout			15,004	86.74	+5.05
Registered electors			17,297

1931 election

General election, 1931: Wellington Central^[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Fraser	6,308	57.26	-3.55
	United	Robert Darroch	3,837	34.83
	Independent	Edward William Nicolaus	688	6.25
	Communist	Richard Francis Griffin	183	1.66
Majority			2,471	22.43	-6.17
Informal votes			91	0.82	-0.37
Turnout			11,107	74.82	-8.79
Registered electors			14,845

1928 election

General election, 1928: Wellington Central^[14]^[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Fraser	7,353	60.81
	Reform	Andrew Sloane	3,895	32.21
	Independent	Margaret Young	843	6.97
Majority			3,458	28.60
Informal votes			145	1.19
Turnout			12,236	83.61
Registered electors			14,635

1918 by-election

Wellington Central by-election, 1918^[16]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Fraser	2,668	56.54
	Independent Labour	Joe Mack	1,044	22.12
	Reform	William Hildreth	784	16.61
	Radical	Harry Atmore	185	3.92
	Returned Soldier	L J F Garmston	29	0.61
	Independent	Will C Tanner	9	0.19
Majority			1,624	34.41
Turnout			4,719	51.43
Registered electors			9,176
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

1914 election

1914 general election: Wellington Central^[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Fletcher	5,208	64.40
	Reform	Francis Fisher	2,879	35.60
Majority			2,329	28.80
Informal votes			84	1.03
Turnout			8,171	84.47
Registered electors			9,673
	Liberal gain from Reform		Swing

1911 election

First ballot

1911 general election: Wellington Central^[18]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Francis Fisher	2,987	39.71
	Liberal	Robert Fletcher	2,983	39.66
	Independent	William Thomas Young	1,372	18.24
	Independent	Frank Freeman	180	2.39
Majority			4	0.05
Informal votes			121	1.58
Turnout			7,643	70.89
Registered electors			10,781

Second ballot

1911 general election: Wellington Central^[18]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Francis Fisher	3,813	50.87
	Liberal	Robert Fletcher	3,682	49.13
Majority			131	1.75
Informal votes			19	0.25
Turnout			7,514	69.70
Registered electors			10,781
	Reform gain from Independent		Swing

Notes

↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 66ff.
↑ "Official Count Results -- Wellington Central". Electoral Commission. 10 December 2011.
↑ "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
↑ 2008 election results
↑ election result Wellington Central 2005
↑ "The General Election, 1946". National Library. 1947. p. 11. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
↑ Gustafson 1986, p. 389.
↑ "Claude Horace Weston". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
↑ "The General Election, 1943". National Library. 1944. p. 11. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
↑ "Results from all Electorates". Evening Post. CXXXVI (76). 27 September 1943. p. 6. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
↑ "City Nominations". Evening Post. CXXXVI (61). 9 September 1943. p. 9. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
↑ "The General Election, 1938". National Library. 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
↑ "Declaration of Result of Poll for the Electoral District of Wellington Central". The Evening Post CXII (140). 10 December 1931. p. 2. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
↑ The General Election, 1928. Government Printer. 1929. p. 6. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
↑ "Declaration of Result of Poll for the Electoral District of Wellington Central". New Zealand Truth (1200). 29 November 1928. p. 14. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
↑ "A victory for Labour". The Evening Post XCVI (83). 4 October 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
↑ The General Election, 1914. Government Printer. 1915. p. 3. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
↑ 18.0 18.1 The General Election, 1914. Government Printer. 1915. p. 7. Retrieved 15 March 2014.

References

Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

External links

Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library
Election results for Wellington Central at the 2005 election Elections New Zealand
Election results for Wellington Central at the 2002 election Elections New Zealand

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