Rongotai (New Zealand electorate)

Rongotai electorate boundaries used since the 2008 election

Rongotai is a New Zealand electorate, returning a single member to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. The current MP for Rongotai is Annette King of the Labour Party. She has held this position since 1996.

Population centres

The Rongotai electorate is centred on the southern and eastern suburbs of Wellington City. It stretches from Miramar in the east to take in the suburbs of Rongotai, Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay and Hataitai and runs from the south coast at Island Bay up through the southern section of the Brooklyn Hill to an east-west border next to Wellington Hospital in Newtown. Because Wellington Airport is within Rongotai's boundaries, the constituency also contains the Chatham Islands including Waitangi. It is named after the suburb of Rongotai which is roughly in its centre. Other suburbs included Berhampore, Owhiro Bay, Seatoun, and Roseneath.

A revision after 1996 pulled the boundary southwards, moving the suburbs around the Basin Reserve and the Massey University campus into Wellington Central. In the 2002 distribution, the area covered by the Rongotai electorate did not change.^[1] Changes to boundaries were done in the 2007 distribution,^[2][3] but no further changes were done in the 2013/13 distribution.^[4]

History

Rongotai was one of the original 65 mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation electorates drawn in 1994 ahead of the 1996 election. It is the successor to the old Island Bay and Miramar electorates, though the areas in these seats in the orbit of the central city were incorporated into a redrawn Wellington Central electorate.

Labour's Annette King has been elected and re-elected as the member of parliament for Rongotai at all seven elections up to 2014.^[5] In five out of the seven elections, Labour also won the party vote; the exception being in 1996 when National out-polled Labour by just 68 votes,^[6] and in 2014, when National's majority was 852 votes.^[7] Chris Finlayson of the National Party has opposed his distant cousin King since the 2008 election. After the 2014 election, he told his supporters that on current trends, he should be able to win the electorate by 2038.^[8]

Members of Parliament

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

Key

Labour	ACT	United Future
Green	National

Election	Winner
1996 election		Annette King
1999 election
2002 election
2005 election
2008 election
2011 election
2014 election

List MPs

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

Election	Winner
1999 election		Stephen Franks
2002 election		Gordon Copeland
2005 election		Gordon Copeland
July 2008^1		Russel Norman
2008 election		Chris Finlayson
2011 election		Chris Finlayson
		Russel Norman
2014 election		Chris Finlayson
		Russel Norman

¹ Norman entered Parliament when Nándor Tánczos resigned.

Election results

2014 election

General election 2014: Rongotai[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 or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Annette King		18,840	49.43	−1.09	11,754	31.87	−2.31
	National	Chris Finlayson		9,223	24.20	−1.18	12,606	34.18	+1.19
	Green	Russel Norman		7,856	20.61	+0.43	10,176	27.59	+3.40
	NZ First	Brent Pierson		793	2.08	+0.72	2,097	5.71	+1.26
	Conservative	Bruce Welsh		576	1.51	+0.30	623	1.70	+0.59
	Mana	Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati		225	0.59	+0.59
	United Future	Sultan Eusoff		95	0.24	+0.24	143	0.38	−0.21
	Independent	Don Richards		89	0.23	−0.19
	Climate	Aaron Carter		66	0.17	+0.17
	Patriotic Revolutionary Front	John Overton		48	0.12	+0.12
	Internet Mana						568	1.54	+1.00[lower-alpha 1]
	Māori						237	0.64	−0.04
	Legalise Cannabis						131	0.36	−0.09
	ACT						120	0.33	−0.32
	Civilian						21	0.06	+0.06
	Ban 1080						19	0.05	+0.05
	Democrats						9	0.02	−0.01
	Independent Coalition						7	0.02	+0.02
	Focus						3	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				304			217
Total Valid votes				38,115			38,731
Turnout				38,731	82.75	+2.84
	Labour hold		Majority	9,617	25.23	+0.09

Electorate (as at 30 April 2016): 48,525^[10]

2011 election

General election 2011: Rongotai[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	%	±%
	Labour	Annette King		18,179	50.52	-1.93	12,606	34.18	-8.51
	National	Chris Finlayson		9,132	25.38	-2.95	12,168	32.99	+1.63
	Green	Russel Norman		7,262	20.18	+4.34	8,920	24.19	+7.22
	NZ First	Brent Pierson		488	1.36	+1.36	1,640	4.45	+1.93
	Conservative	Bruce Welsh		435	1.21	+1.21	409	1.11	+1.11
	ACT	Joel Latimer		168	0.47	-0.67	238	0.65	-1.34
	Māori	Aroha Rickus		168	0.47	+0.47	251	0.68	-0.24
	Independent	Don Richards		152	0.42	+0.42
	United Future						217	0.59	-0.27
	Mana						198	0.54	+0.54
	Legalise Cannabis						167	0.45	+0.04
	Libertarianz						31	0.08	-0.01
	Alliance						23	0.06	-0.03
	Democrats						11	0.03	+0.02
Informal votes				617			302
Total Valid votes				35,984			36,879
	Labour hold		Majority	9,047	25.14	+1.02

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 46,153^[12]

2008 election

General election 2008: Rongotai[13]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Annette King		19,614	52.45		16,263	42.69
	National	Chris Finlayson		10,594	28.33		11,950	31.37
	Green	Russel Norman		5,925	15.84		6,464	16.97
	Kiwi	Gordon Copeland		515	1.38		169	0.44
	ACT	Michael Bridge		425	1.14		758	1.99
	United Future	Karuna Muthu		223	0.60		326	0.86
	Libertarianz	Mitch Lees		100	0.27		34	0.09
	NZ First						960	2.52
	Māori						351	0.92
	Progressive						291	0.76
	Bill and Ben						188	0.49
	Legalise Cannabis						158	0.41
	Family Party						53	0.14
	Pacific						48	0.13
	Alliance						37	0.10
	Workers Party						33	0.09
	RONZ						6	0.02
	Democrats						4	0.01
	RAM						4	0.01
Informal votes				356			167
Total Valid votes				37,396			38,097
	Labour hold		Majority	9,020	21.12

2005 election

General election 2005: Rongotai[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	%	±%
	Labour	Annette King		21,376	59.38	+3.23	18,327	49.96
	National	Nicola Young		8,738	24.27	+3.78	10,210	27.84
	Green	Luci Highfield		2,921	8.11		4,630	12.71
	United Future	Gordon Copeland		1,581	2.68		1,069	2.91
	Māori	Morris Te Whiti Love		499	1.39		232	0.63
	ACT	Gavin Middleton		425	1.18		379	1.03
	Progressive	Vladimir Bell		333	0.93		394	1.07
	Alliance	Jocelyn Brooks		127	0.35		31	0.08
	NZ First						1,109	3.02
	Destiny						107	0.29
	Legalise Cannabis						83	0.23
	Christian Heritage						39	0.11
	Libertarianz						20	0.05
	99 MP						18	0.05
	Family Rights						11	0.03
	Democrats						10	0.03
	One NZ						7	0.02
	RONZ						3	0.01
	Direct Democracy						1	0.00
Informal votes				431			164
Total Valid votes				36,000			36,680
	Labour hold		Majority	12,638	35.11	-0.55

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.

References

1. Report of the Representation Commission 2002 (PDF). Representation Commission. 21 March 2002. p. 9. ISBN 0-478-20169-9. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
2. Report of the Representation Commission 2007 (PDF). Representation Commission. 14 September 2007. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
3. Farrar, David. "Proposed 2008 Boundaries". Kiwiblog. Retrieved 3 October 2014. Note that what is discussed in this entry was what the Representation Commission put out for public consultation; this does not represent the final decision.
4. Report of the Representation Commission 2014 (PDF). Representation Commission. 4 April 2014. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
5. "Hon Annette King". New Zealand Parliament. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
6. "Part V - Electorate Summary of Votes for Registered Parties" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
7. "Official Count Results -- Rongotai". Electoral Commission. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
8. Finlayson, Chris (27 September 2014). "Diary Australia". The Spectator.
9. "Official Count Results -- Rongotai (2014)". Electoral Commission. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
10. "Enrolment statistics by Electorate". Electoral Commission. 30 April 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
11. 2011 election results
12. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
13. "Official Count Results -- Rongotai". Chief Electoral Office. 22 November 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
14. election result Rongotai 2005

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library
• Election results for Rongotai at the 2005 election Elections New Zealand
• Election results for Rongotai at the 2002 election Elections New Zealand