Te Atatū (New Zealand electorate)

Te Atatū electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

Te Atatū (before 2008 styled Te Atatu, without macron) is a parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. The current MP for Te Atatū is Phil Twyford of the Labour Party.[1]

Population centres

The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established through an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government.[2] As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed. This had little practical effect for people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island.[3] The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Te Atatu) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.[4]

Te Atatū comprises the suburbs of Waitakere City on the western side of the Whau River in Auckland. The main parts of the seat are the suburbs of Glendene, Te Atatu, Lincoln and Massey. Boundary changes in the leadup to the 2008 election have seen the northern boundary edge northwards to include Massey East, with a small southern block transferred to the neighbouring Waitakere seat.

The makeup of Te Atatū shows that while its population is composed roughly inline with the national average: It is roughly the same ages as the nation (with slightly more residents over fifty), and its average income ($22627) is only slightly lower than the rest of New Zealand. Its main point of demographic difference with its country is ethnic - it has more Asian New Zealanders and more Pacific Islanders than the rest of the country.

History

The Te Atatu electorate was created ahead of the 1978 election by pulling apart the seat of Waitemata; its first MP was future cabinet minister Dr Michael Bassett, who had been the MP for Waitemata from 1972 until 1975 before an anti-labour landslide cost him his job. Basset held the seat until his retirement in 1990, when a toxic battle to succeed Bassett in an already lean year for Labour passed one of their safe seats into the hands of Brian Neeson. Neeson himself never represented the same seat twice in succession, (having jumped ship to Waitakere in 1993, Waipareia in 1996, to a new, larger Waitakere seat in 1999 before being denied the chance to contest Helensville in 2002), and his departure in 1993, coupled with a reversal of electoral fortune for the National Party (down from 47.8 to 35.1 percent) lead to a victory for incoming Labour MP Chris Carter. In his first three years in Parliament, Carter made news for being the first openly gay member of Parliament.

With the introduction of MMP voting in 1996, Te Atatū was scrapped in favour of a new seat called Waipareira, which covered the same area as Te Atatū, but also included the wealthy harbourside suburbs to the north of the seat. Neeson and Carter were rematched, when the presence of former Labour MP for West Auckland turned New Zealand First candidate Jack Elder, undermined Carter's chances and handed the seat to Neeson by fewer than a thousand votes.

Three years later, Te Atatu was re-established, with the new seat focused more on the working class suburbs at the southern end of Waitakere City and Carter had no such trouble using the seat to springboard back into Parliament. In 2002 and 2005, because the electoral climate favoured Labour, Carter and his party dominated the seat, winning at least 49 percent of the candidate and list vote, but the Labour vote was reduced in the 2008 election.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Labour     National     Independent     Alliance  

Election Winner
1978 election Michael Bassett
1981 election
1984 election
1987 election
1990 election Brian Neeson
1993 election Chris Carter
(Electorate abolished 1996–1999, see Waipareira)
1999 election Chris Carter
2002 election
2005 election
2008 election
2011 election Phil Twyford
2014 election

List MPs

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections since 1999 where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Te Atatū electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

Election Winner
1999 election Laila Harré
2005 election Tau Henare1
2008 election
2011 election
2014 election Alfred Ngaro

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Te Atatū[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 tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Labour Phil Twyford 15,860 53.83 +0.39 11,999 38.91 -2.59
National Tau Henare 10,444 35.45 -0.79 12,701 41.19 -0.35
Green Gary Stewart 1,744 5.92 +2.66 2,231 7.24 +3.23
Conservative Cynthia Liu 1,106 3.75 +3.75 851 2.76 +2.76
ACT Dominic Costello 308 1.05 -1.85 271 0.88 -2.28
NZ First   2,081 6.75 +2.56
Māori   193 0.63 -0.21
Legalise Cannabis   169 0.55 +0.20
Mana   159 0.52 +0.52
United Future   121 0.39 -0.48
Alliance   24 0.08 -0.01
Democrats   21 0.07 +0.04
Libertarianz   14 0.05 +0.02
Informal votes 1,067 356
Total Valid votes 29,462 30,835
Labour hold Majority 5,416 18.38 +1.18

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,746[6]

2008 election

General Election 2008: Te Atatu[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 Green tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Labour Green tickY Chris Carter 16,459 53.44 13,171 41.50
National Tau Henare 11,161 36.24 13,183 41.54
Green Xavier Goldie 1,003 3.26 1,270 4.00
ACT Lech Beltowski 891 2.89 1,002 3.16
Pacific Fiasili Jackueline Ah Tong 435 1.41 362 1.14
Kiwi Jo van Kempen 260 0.84 123 0.39
United Future Talei Solomon-Mua 250 0.81 278 0.88
Progressive Pavitra Roy 244 0.79 267 0.84
Alliance Robert van Ruyssevelt 94 0.31 27 0.09
NZ First   1,328 4.18
Māori   264 0.83
Bill and Ben   180 0.57
Family Party   134 0.42
Legalise Cannabis   111 0.35
Workers Party   12 0.04
Democrats   8 0.03
Libertarianz   8 0.03
RAM   6 0.02
RONZ   4 0.01
Informal votes 480 174
Total Valid votes 30,797 31,738
Labour hold Majority 5,298 17.20

2005 election

General election 2005: Te Atatu[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 tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party Votes % ±%
Labour Green tickY Chris Carter 18,087 59.37 -3.12 16,209 52.03
National Tau Henare 7,640 25.08 +10.63 9,466 30.38
NZ First Moetu Davis 1,016 11.14 1,830 5.87
United Future Jo van Kemp 897 2.94 956 3.07
Green Kath Dewar 849 2.79 1,064 3.42
Māori Kelvin Martin 250 0.82 219 0.70
Progressive Patriva Roy 226 0.74 347 1.11
Christian Heritage Betty Jenkins 205 0.67 97 0.31
Alliance Bob van Ruyssevelt 104 0.34 24 0.08
Independent Adele Hughes 86 0.28
Family Rights Stella Te Paeru Brown-Knowles 77 0.25 101 0.32
Direct Democracy Gregory Trichon 56 0.18 23 0.07
ACT   379 1.03
Destiny   107 0.29
Legalise Cannabis   52 0.17
One NZ   6 0.02
RONZ   6 0.02
Libertarianz   5 0.02
99 MP   4 0.01
Democrats   4 0.01
Informal votes 370 176
Total Valid votes 30,463 31,154
Labour hold Majority 10,447 34.29 -13.75

Notes

  1. ↑ "New Zealand Parliament - Twyford, Phil". Parliament.nz. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  2. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 8–9, 51, 119.
  3. ↑ McRobie 1989, p. 119.
  4. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 115–120.
  5. ↑ "Official Count Results - Te Atatū". Electionresults.govt.nz. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  6. ↑ "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "Official Count Results - Te Atatū". Electionresults.govt.nz. 2008-11-22. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  8. ↑ "Official Count Results - Te Atatu". Electionresults.govt.nz. Retrieved 2014-03-04.

References

External links

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