Heretaunga is a former New Zealand parliamentary

electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a Prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 * An electoral district An ...

, in the city of

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

, that existed from 1954 until 1996.

Population centres

The First Labour Government was defeated in the and the incoming National Government changed the Electoral Act, with the electoral quota once again based on total population as opposed to qualified electors, and the tolerance was increased to 7.5% of the electoral quota. There was no adjustments in the number of electorates between the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

s, but the law changes resulted in boundary adjustments to almost every electorate through the 1952 electoral redistribution; only five electorates were unaltered. Five electorates were reconstituted and the Heretaunga electorate was newly created, and a corresponding six electorates were abolished; all of these in the North Island. These changes took effect with the . The Heretaunga electorate was urban and was based on Heretaunga, a suburb of

in the northern

Hutt Valley The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...

. Other places included

Haywards Haywards is a small hillside suburb in the Hutt Valley near Wellington, New Zealand. It is notable for its large electrical substation, which is the main switching point for the Wellington region, and the home of the North Island converter sta ...

and

Birchville Birchville is a suburb of Upper Hutt, New Zealand in the North Island. Its centre lies at the entrance to the Akatarawa Valley The Akatarawa Valley is a valley in the Tararua Range of New Zealand's North Island. It provides a link from the ...

History

The electorate originated in 1954, and lasted to 1996, when with the introduction of MMP it was replaced by

Rimutaka The Remutaka Range (spelled Rimutaka Range before 2017) is the southernmost range of a mountain chain in the lower North Island of New Zealand. The chain continues north into the Tararua, then Ruahine Ranges, running parallel with the east c ...

. In the , Upper Hutt had belonged to the electorate, and the National Party's incumbent

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Jimmy Maher James Patrick Maher (born 27 February 1974) is an Australian former cricketer, who played One Day Internationals. He is "an attractive left-handed batsman with a clumping cover-drive". Maher competed in the Gladiator Team Sports Challenge i ...

had defeated the Labour' Party's candidate,

Phil Holloway Philip North Holloway (22 March 1917 – 28 May 2003) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. Biography Early life and career Holloway was born in Hokitika in 1917. His father was an Anglican parson and he received his secondary ed ...

. In the , Upper Hutt belonged to the newly-formed Heretaunga electorate, and Holloway stood against National's

Allan McCready Allan McCready (1 September 1916 – 8 August 2003) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party. Biography McCready was born in Kawakawa in 1916, the son of Alexander McCready. He received his education at Kawakawa District H ...

(Maher's son-in-law) and won decisively. Up to

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

when Peter McCardle won the seat for National, the Labour Party held Heretaunga. In

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, McCardle narrowly held the seat against a challenge from

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate Heather Simpson (who went on to become

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

's Chief of Staff, known as H2 – Clark was H1 ). Subsequently, McCardle left the National Party in 1996 and joined

New Zealand First New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Winst ...

Members of Parliament

Key

Election results

1993 election

1990 election

1987 election

1984 election

1981 election

1978 election

1975 election

1972 election

1969 election

1966 election

1963 election

1960 election

1957 election

1954 election

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heretaunga (New Zealand Electorate) Historical electorates of New Zealand Politics of the Wellington Region Upper Hutt 1954 establishments in New Zealand 1996 disestablishments in New Zealand