Wigram (New Zealand electorate)

Wigram electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

Wigram is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. The current MP for Wigram is Megan Woods of the Labour Party. She took over this position from Jim Anderton, who had held this position from 1996 until 2011.

Population centres

Through an amendment in the Electoral Act in 1965, the number of electorates in the South Island was fixed at 25, an increase of one since the 1962 electoral redistribution.^[1] It was accepted that through the more rapid population growth in the North Island, the number of its electorates would continue to increase, and to keep proportionality, three new electorates were allowed for in the 1967 electoral redistribution for the next election.^[2] In the North Island, five electorates were newly created and one electorate was reconstituted while three electorates were abolished.^[3] In the South Island, three electorates were newly created (including Wigram) and one electorate was reconstituted while three electorates were abolished.^[4] The overall effect of the required changes was highly disruptive to existing electorates, with all but three electorates having their boundaries altered.^[5] These changes came into effect with the 1969 election.^[2]

Wigram is based around south-western Christchurch. The main suburbs in the seat are Spreydon, Hillmorton, Riccarton, Hornby and Sockburn. Following the 2013/2014 boundary review, it lost the suburb of Somerfield and parts of Hoon Hay to Port Hills.^[6] The electorate's name comes from the suburb of Wigram, and by extension the former Wigram Aerodrome, itself named after colonial businessman Sir Henry Wigram.

History

The electorate had previously existed from 1969 to 1978, when it was held by Mick Connelly for Labour.

Wigram was one of the original sixty-five Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electorates created ahead of the 1996 election, when the number of South Island seats was reduced to sixteen. The formerly safe Labour seat of Sydenham lies at Wigram's core, and Labour's strong showing in the party vote in both 2002 and 2005, where the party won nearly half of all party votes cast, indicates that Wigram's political inclinations are left-leaning in nature. Its most well-known MP Jim Anderton was himself the Labour MP for Sydenham between 1984 and 1989, before he split from the party over its political directions and formed the NewLabour Party, which later merged into the Alliance; the Alliance disintegrated in 2002, but Anderton, by then the leader of the Progressive Party held off all challengers to easily hold the seat. In the 2011 election, the seat reverted to Labour candidate Megan Woods after his retirement, but the National Party comfortably won the party vote.^[7] The chairman of the Canterbury-Westland branch of the National Party, Roger Bridge, stated in April 2014 that Woods had a low profile and the Wigram electorate was now "winnable".^[8] Woods won re-election in the 2014 election with a more than a doubled majority.^[9]

Members of Parliament

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and started at general elections.

Key   Labour     Alliance     Progressive  

Election results

2014 election

General election 2014: Wigram[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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Megan Woods		14,519	48.95	+3.84	8,764	28.67	-1.94
	National	Karl Varley		11,189	37.72	-2.59	13,117	42.91	-1.64
	Green	Richard Wesley		2,324	7.83	+0.07	3,919	12.82	-0.34
	Conservative	Mark Peters		847	2.86	+0.34	1,102	3.61	+1.24
	ACT	Shaun Grieve		318	1.07	+1.07	317	1.04	+0.41
	Internet Mana	Lois McClintoch		213	0.72	+0.72	231	0.76	+0.56
	Māori	Te Whe Phillips		122	0.41	+0.41	145	0.47	+0.03
	Democrats	John Ring		79	0.27	+0.27	30	0.10	+0.10
	Economic Euthenics	Tubby Hansen		51	0.17	+0.00
	NZ First						2,618	8.56	+2.52
	Legalise Cannabis						154	0.50	-0.08
	United Future						86	0.28	-0.50
	Ban 1080						41	0.13	+0.13
	Civilian						31	0.10	+0.10
	Independent Coalition						7	0.02	+0.02
	Focus						5	0.02	+0.02
Informal votes				401			136
Total Valid votes				29,662			30,567
	Labour hold		Majority	3,330	11.23	+6.43

2011 election

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 45,427^[10]

2008 election

General election 2008: Wigram[11]
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	%	±%
	Progressive	Y Jim Anderton		15,320	44.50		2,010	5.73
	National	Marc Alexander		10,553	30.66		13,308	37.91
	Labour	Erin Ebborn-Gillespie		5,214	15.15		14,108	40.19
	Green	Peter Taylor		1,802	5.23		2,436	6.94
	NZ First	Steve Campbell		471	1.37		1,050	2.99
	ACT	Matthew Gardiner		355	1.03		653	1.86
	Kiwi	Lindsay Cameron		321	0.93		322	0.92
	United Future	Vanessa Roberts		219	0.64		355	1.01
	Alliance	Tom Dowie		55	0.16		68	0.19
	Libertarianz	Ben Morgan		55	0.16		22	0.06
	Democrats	John Charles Ring		32	0.09		13	0.04
	Economic Euthenics	Michael Hansen		28	0.08
	Bill and Ben						251	0.72
	Māori						198	0.56
	Legalise Cannabis						151	0.43
	Family Party						83	0.24
	Pacific						51	0.15
	Workers Party						17	0.05
	RONZ						5	0.01
	RAM						1	0.00
Informal votes				440			291
Total Valid votes				34,425			35,102
	Progressive hold		Majority	4,767

2005 election

General election 2005: Wigram[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	%	±%
	Progressive	Y Jim Anderton		15,961	47.62	+11.94	2,191	6.46
	National	Alison Lomax		7,413	22.12	+8.27	9,895	29.16
	Labour	Paul Chalmers		6,408	19.12	-6.45	16,271	47.95
	Green	Richard Suggate		1,455	4.34		1,967	5.80
	United Future	Vanessa Roberts		988	2.95		1,313	3.87
	NZ First	Brian Roswell		912	2.72		1,577	4.65
	ACT	Tetauru Emile		203	0.61		255	0.75
	Anti-Capitalist Alliance	Sam Kingi		69	0.21
	Alliance	Tom Dowie		61	0.21		55	0.16
	Economic Euthenics	Michael Hansen		29	0.09
	Direct Democracy	Anton Foljambe		20	0.06		5	0.01
	Destiny						112	0.33
	Māori						90	0.27
	Legalise Cannabis						89	0.26
	Christian Heritage						52	0.15
	Libertarianz						22	0.06
	Democrats						15	0.04
	RONZ						8	0.02
	Family Rights						6	0.02
	One NZ						4	0.01
	99 MP						3	0.01
Informal votes				716			728
Total Valid votes				33,519			33,930
	Progressive hold		Majority	8,548	25.50	+15.39

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. 

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library