Hunua (New Zealand electorate)

Hunua electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

The Hunua electorate existed three times for the House of Representatives of New Zealand beginning in 1978, based at the south end of the Auckland urban area, and named for the Hunua Ranges. It covered different geographical areas over those periods. The electorate is currently represented by Andrew Bayly of the National Party.

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.^[1] 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.^[2] The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Hunua) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.^[3]

Population centres of the original electorate included Cockle Bay in the north-west, East Tamaki in the west, the settlement of Hunua itself, Mangatawhiri in the south, and Kaiaua in the east.^[2] The electorate existed for two parliamentary periods until the 1983 electoral redistribution, when boundary changes forced its abolition ahead of the 1984 election.^[4][5] The north-west corner went to the newly established Otara electorate, and the remaining part was absorbed by the reconstituted Franklin electorate.^[6]

History

The 1978 election was notable in that Labour candidate Malcolm Douglas held an election night majority of 301 votes. However, National candidate Winston Peters claimed irregularities in the vote, and in a 24 May 1979 ruling, a Court-ordered recount resulted in 500 votes being re-classed as informal, giving Peters a majority of 192. Peters was declared elected as of election night.^[7][8]

The electorate was re-created due to the 1996 change to mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting and the resulting reduction in the number of constituencies. The second historical Hunua electorate contained a selection of dormitory towns in south Auckland, of which Papakura was the largest. The Hunua electorate was abolished again in 2002 and replaced by Papakura.

The electorate was established again for the 2008 election. The new Hunua electorate is based around the southern and eastern fringes of the Auckland region, and contains the Franklin District towns of Pukekohe, Waiuku, Bombay, as well as Clevedon, Whitford and Maraetai from eastern Manukau. The resurrected Hunua electorate officially replaced the redrawn and renamed electorate of Port Waikato.

Members of Parliament

Key

  National     Labour     ACT  

1. ↑ The election of Malcolm Douglas was overturned by the Electoral Court on 24 May 1979

List MPs

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

Election results

2014 election

2011 election

General election 2011: Hunua[10]
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	Y Paul Hutchison		22,563	65.59	+1.18	22,161	62.58	+1.94
	Labour	Richard Hills		5,766	16.76	-1.05	5,705	16.11	-3.60
	Green	Charmaine A Watts		2,576	7.49	+3.01	2,438	6.88	+3.52
	NZ First	Doug Nabbs		1,405	4.08	+1.15	2,626	7.42	+3.04
	Conservative	Kevin Campbell		1,373	3.99	+3.99	1,320	3.73	+3.73
	ACT	Ian Cummings		440	1.28	-7.74	515	1.45	-6.79
	Māori	Thomas Tuatu Toihau Phillips		194	0.56	+0.56	188	0.53	-0.01
	Democrats	Huia Mitchell		81	0.24	+0.24	30	0.08	+0.06
	United Future						170	0.48	-0.34
	Legalise Cannabis						154	0.43	+0.11
	Mana						75	0.21	+0.21
	Libertarianz						25	0.07	+0.04
	Alliance						4	0.01	-0.03
Informal votes				699			204
Total Valid votes				34,398			35,411
	National hold		Majority	16,797	48.83	+2.23

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 47,215^[11]

2008 election

General election 2008: Hunua[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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Paul Hutchison		21,920	64.41		21,032	60.64
	Labour	Jordan Carter		6,062	17.81		6,836	19.71
	ACT	Roger Douglas		3,068	9.02		2,859	8.24
	Green	Fiona Kenworthy (Shaw)		1,525	4.48		1,168	3.37
	NZ First	Helen Mulford		997	2.93		1,516	4.37
	Kiwi	Frank Naea		209	0.61		130	0.37
	United Future	Toni Driller		195	0.57		286	0.82
	Libertarianz	Bruce Whitehead		56	0.16		10	0.03
	Bill and Ben						199	0.57
	Progressive						194	0.56
	Māori						189	0.54
	Legalise Cannabis						112	0.32
	Family Party						95	0.27
	Pacific						21	0.06
	Alliance						16	0.05
	Workers Party						9	0.03
	Democrats						7	0.02
	RONZ						3	0.01
	RAM						2	0.01
Informal votes				299			118
Total Valid votes				34,032			34,684
	National win new seat		Majority	15,858

1996 election

General election 1996: Hunua[13][14][15]
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	Warren Kyd		11,953	38.93		12,932	41.94
	United NZ	N John Robertson		6,855	22.33		805	2.61
	Labour	Paul Schofield		5,049	16.44		6,569	21.30
	NZ First	Patra de Coudray		3,267	10.64		4,237	13.74
	Alliance	Huia Mitchell		1,682	5.48		1,938	6.29
	Christian Coalition	Enosa Auva'a		1,017	3.31		1,328	4.31
	ACT	Simon Harding		739	2.41		2,170	7.04
	Natural Law	Mike Dunn		103	0.34		27	0.09
	Republican	Sophie James		40	0.13
	Legalise Cannabis						492	1.60
	McGillicuddy Serious						86	0.28
	Progressive Green						83	0.27
	Animals First						69	0.22
	Ethnic Minority Party						31	0.10
	Green Society						18	0.06
	Superannuitants & Youth						15	0.05
	Libertarianz						15	0.05
	Advance New Zealand						7	0.02
	Mana Māori						6	0.02
	Conservatives						3	0.01
	Asia Pacific United						2	0.01
	Te Tawharau						1	0.00
Informal votes				225			96
Total Valid votes				30,705			30,834
	National win new seat		Majority	5,098	16.60

Table footnotes

Notes

References

• 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.