East Coast (New Zealand electorate)

East Coast electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

East Coast is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. The electorate first existed from 1871 to 1893, and was recreated in 1999. The current MP for East Coast is Anne Tolley of the National Party, who has held office since 2005.^[1]

Population centres

The electorate's main centres are Gisborne (32,529) and Tolaga Bay in the Gisborne Region; and Opotiki and Whakatane (18,800) in the eastern part of the Bay of Plenty Region. Wairoa, the northernmost town in the Hawke's Bay region, was excluded by the 2007 boundary changes.

History

The East Coast electorate was first established for the 5th Parliament in 1871.^[2] William Kelly was the first elected representative; he held the seat until the end of the term in 1875.^[3]

The "most sensational electoral contest ever held in the East Coast" electorate was held in January 1876, when mysterious pieces of cardboard were distributed by supporters of George Read in Gisborne, which hotel bars accepted as legal tender. Read, George Morris and Kelly received 215, 206 and 185 votes, with another candidate coming a distant fourth. Morris petitioned against Read's election. A parliamentary committee of enquiry determined that Read had not broken any laws by approving the initiative, but the House of Representatives resolved that Read was to be unseated in favour of Morris, which happened later in 1876.^[4][5] This was the last election enquiry held by a parliamentary committee. Subsequently, these enquiries were held by the courts.^[6]

At the next election in 1879, Morris was defeated by Allan McDonald, who held the electorate until he resigned in 1884.^[7]

Samuel Locke won the resulting by-election and was confirmed a few months later at the 1884 general election. He served until the end of the term of the 9th Parliament in 1887.^[8]

Andrew Graham won the 1887 general election. He resigned in 1889 before the end of the term.^[9] Alexander Creighton Arthur won the resulting 1889 by-election. Arthur and Kelly (the electorate's first representative in 1871) contested the 1890 general election, and Kelly was successful by a small margin, with 1022 to 1008 votes in his favour.^[10] He served until the end of the term in 1893,^[3] after which the electorate was abolished, and was replaced by the Bay of Plenty and Waiapu electorates.

Members of Parliament

From 1871 to 1893, the electorate was represented by seven Members of Parliament. When the electorate was abolished the then current MP, William Kelly contested and won the new seat of Bay of Plenty. In 1999, the electorate was recreated from most of the Mahia, and part of the Bay of Plenty electorates. Since 1999 it has been represented by two MPs.

Key

  Independent     Liberal     Labour     National     United Future     Green  

Election	Winner
1871 election		William Kelly
1876 election		George Read
		George Morris^1
1879 election		Allan McDonald
1881 election
1884 by-election		Samuel Locke
1884 election
1887 election		Andrew Graham
1889 by-election		Alexander Creighton Arthur
1890 election		William Kelly
electorate abolished, 1893-1999
1999 election		Janet Mackey
2002 election
2005 election		Anne Tolley
2008 election
2011 election
2014 election

¹ See History section above.

List MPs

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

Election	Winner
2002 election		Judy Turner
2005 election		Moana Mackey
		Judy Turner
2008 election		Catherine Delahunty
		Moana Mackey
2011 election		Moana Mackey

Election results

2014 election

General election, 2014: East Coast[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 or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Anne Tolley		18,074	51.92	+3.65	17,152	48.42	−1.35
	Labour	Moana Mackey		10,140	29.13	−2.69	8,022	22.64	−1.23
	Green	Gavin Maclean		2,679	7.70	−0.75	3,248	9.17	−1.43
	NZ First	Mere Takoko		2,485	7.14	+3.06	4,176	11.79	+3.26
	Conservative	Rick Drayson		784	2.25	−2.41	1,438	4.06	+1.04
	Internet	Patrick Salmon		259	0.74	+0.74
	Democrats	Harry Alchin Smith		86	0.25	+0.25	30	0.08	+0.05
	Internet Mana						413	1.17	+0.42[lower-alpha 1]
	Māori						334	0.94	−0.11
	Legalise Cannabis						150	0.42	−0.03
	Ban 1080						122	0.34	+0.34
	ACT						82	0.23	−0.71
	United Future						78	0.22	−0.69
	Independent Coalition						17	0.05	+0.05
	Civilian						13	0.04	+0.04
	Focus						4	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				305			148
Total Valid votes				34,812			35,427
Turnout				35,575	76.69	+2.16
	National hold		Majority	7,934	22.79	+6.33

2011 election

General Election 2011: East Coast[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 or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Anne Tolley		14,003	48.27	-4.18	14,804	49.77	+2.15
	Labour	Moana Mackey		9,229	31.82	-0.21	7,101	23.87	-7.78
	Green	Darryl Monteith		2,452	8.45	+3.09	3,154	10.60	+4.24
	Conservative	Kathy Sheldrake		1,352	4.66	+4.66	898	3.02	+3.02
	NZ First	Tamati Reid		1,184	4.08	-2.76	2,538	8.53	+2.68
	United Future	Martin Gibson		392	1.35	-1.96	271	0.91	-1.28
	Mana	Val Irwin		256	0.88	+0.88	224	0.75	+0.75
	ACT	John Norvill		140	0.48	+0.48	280	0.94	-1.62
	Legalise Cannabis						133	0.45	+0.14
	Māori						313	1.05	-0.38
	Alliance						10	0.03	-0.03
	Democrats						10	0.03	-0.004
	Libertarianz						9	0.03	-0.01
Informal votes				616			233
Total Valid votes				29,008			29,976
	National hold		Majority	4,774	16.46	-3.98

Electorate (as at 21 October 2011): 40,533^[13]

2008 election

General Election 2008: East Coast[14]
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 or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Anne Tolley		16,463	52.46	+7.65	15,160	47.63	+5.43
	Labour	Moana Mackey		10,050	32.02	-8.78	10,075	31.65	-7.34
	NZ First	Brendan Horan		2,147	6.84	+3.35	1,862	5.85	-0.92
	Green	Catherine Delahunty		1,684	5.37	+1.75	2,025	6.36	+2.11
	United Future	Judy Turner		1,040	3.31	-0.57	698	2.19	-0.76
	ACT						816	2.56	+1.87
	Māori						457	1.44	-0.16
	Progressive						199	0.63	-0.37
	Bill and Ben						175	0.55	-
	Kiwi						115	0.36	-
	Legalise Cannabis						99	0.31	+0.12
	Family Party						83	0.26	-
	Alliance						19	0.06	+0.00
	Libertarianz						13	0.04	+0.02
	Democrats						12	0.04	-0.03
	Workers Party						10	0.03	-
	Pacific						7	0.02	-
	RONZ						5	0.02	+0.01
	RAM						2	0.01	-
Informal votes				246			130
Total Valid votes				31,384			31,832
	National hold		Majority	6,413	20.43	+16.44

2005 election

Note: lines coloured beige denote the winner of the electorate vote. Lines coloured pink denote a candidate elected to Parliament from their party list.

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Party Votes	%
National	Anne Tolley	13,666	44.80	13,070	42.20
Labour	Moana Mackey	12,447	40.81	12,076	38.99
United	Judy Turner	1,186	3.89	916	2.96
Green	Catherine Delahunty	1,104	3.62	1,316	4.25
NZ First	Joe Glenn	1,064	3.49	2,098	6.77
Māori Party	John Harré	589	1.93	494	1.59
Destiny	Bill Sadler	446	1.46	336	1.08
Progressive	-	-	-	309	1.00
ACT	-	-	-	214	0.69
ALCP	-	-	-	60	0.19
Christian Heritage	-	-	-	20	0.06
Democrats	-	-	-	20	0.06
Alliance	-	-	-	17	0.05
Family Rights PP	-	-	-	8	0.03
Libertarianz	-	-	-	6	0.02
99 MP	-	-	-	5	0.02
One NZ	-	-	-	3	0.01
Direct Democracy	-	-	-	2	0.01
Republic of NZ	-	-	-	2	0.01
informal votes		266		125
total valid votes		30,502		30,972
National gain from Labour	Majority	1,219

sourced from electionresults.govt.nz

1890 election

General election, 1890: East Coast^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	William Kelly	1,022	50.34
	Conservative	Alexander Creighton Arthur	1,008	49.65
Majority			14	0.68
Turnout			2,030	68.65
Registered electors			2,957

Table footnotes

1. 2014 Internet Mana swing is relative to the votes for Mana in 2011; it shared a party list with Internet in the 2014 election.

Notes

1. New Zealand Parliament - Anne Tolley MP
2. Scholefield 1950, p. 157.
3. Scholefield 1925, p. 107.
4. "East Coast (New Zealand electorate)". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
5. "East Coast Election Report". Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5261. 23 August 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
6. Mackay 1949, p. 354.
7. Scholefield 1925, p. 111.
8. Scholefield 1925, p. 110.
9. Scholefield 1925, p. 96.
10. Mackay 1949, p. 355.
11. New Zealand Electoral Commission (10 October 2014). "Official Count Results – East Coast". Retrieved 28 January 2016.
12. East Coast results, 2011
13. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
14. Election result: East Coast, 2008
15. "The General Election, 1890". National Library. 1891. Retrieved 25 February 2012.

References

• Mackay, Joseph Angus (1949). Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z. Gisborne: Joseph Angus Mackay. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
• Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.
• Scholefield, Guy (1925) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record (2nd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library