Rongotai is a New Zealand

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 The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, ...

, returning a single member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Rongotai is

Paul Eagle Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

of the Labour Party. He has held this position since the 2017 general election.

Population centres

The Rongotai electorate is centred on the southern and eastern suburbs of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

City. It stretches from Miramar in the east to take in the suburbs of Rongotai, Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay and

Hataitai Hataitai is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, 3.5 kilometres southeast of the city centre. The suburb extends over the southeastern flank of Mount Victoria and down a valley between the Town Belt and a ridge al ...

and runs from the south coast at Island Bay up through the southern section of the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Hill to an east–west border next to Wellington Hospital in Newtown. Because

Wellington Airport Wellington International Airport (formerly known as Rongotai Airport) is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington. It lies 3 NM or 5.5 km south-east from the city centre. It is a hub for Air New Zealand an ...

is within Rongotai's boundaries, the constituency also contains the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

. It is named after the suburb of Rongotai which is roughly in its centre. Other suburbs include Berhampore,

Ōwhiro Bay Ōwhiro Bay is a southern suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, that overlooks Cook Strait. It is situated west of the larger suburb of Island Bay. The official name of the suburb was changed from Owhiro Bay to Ōwhiro Bay (with macron) by the New ...

Seatoun Seatoun, an eastern suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, lies on the east coast of the Miramar Peninsula, close to the entrance to Wellington Harbour ( Port Nicholson), some seven kilometres southeast of the CBD. The suburb s ...

, and Roseneath. A revision after 1996 pulled the boundary southwards, moving the suburbs around the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve (commonly known as "The Basin") is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It has been used for Test matches, and is the main home ground for the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only crick ...

and the Massey University campus into the electorate. In the 2002 redistribution, the area covered by the Rongotai electorate did not change. Changes to boundaries were done in the 2007 redistribution, but no further changes were done in the 2013/14 or 2019/20 redistributions.

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 and 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 Dame Annette Faye King (née Robinson, born 13 September 1947) is a former New Zealand politician. She served as Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2011, and from 2014 until 1 March 20 ...

was elected and re-elected as the member of parliament for Rongotai at all seven elections from 1996 to . In five out of the seven elections, Labour also won the party vote; the exception being in 1996 when

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

out-polled Labour by just 68 votes, and in 2014, when National's majority was 852 votes.

Chris Finlayson Christopher Francis Finlayson (born 1956) is a New Zealand lawyer and former Member of Parliament, representing the National Party. He was elected to Parliament in 2005. In the Fifth National Government, from 2008 to 2017, he was Attorney-Ge ...

of the National Party opposed King, his distant cousin, since the . After the 2014 election, he told his supporters that on current trends, he should be able to win the electorate by 2038. King announced in March 2017 that she was stepping down from her role as Labour's deputy leader and would retire from politics at the 2017 general election. The electorate of Rongotai was won in the election by

, retaining it for Labour. During the 2020 general election, Eagle retained Rongotai for Labour based on preliminary results. Eagle announced in June 2022 that he would contest the

2022 Wellington City mayoral election The 2022 Wellington City mayoral election, part of the Wellington local elections in October 2022, determined who would serve as Mayor of the City of Wellington for the next three-year term. It was won by Tory Whanau, a former Green Party parl ...

and should he be successful, he would resign from Parliament and trigger a by-election.

Members of Parliament

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

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 results

2020 election

2017 election

2014 election

Electorate (as at 30 April 2016): 48,525

2011 election

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 46,153

2008 election

2005 election

1999 election

Refer to Candidates in the New Zealand general election 1999 by electorate#Rongotai for a list of candidates.

Table footnotes

References

External links

Electorate Profile
''Parliamentary Library''

Elections New Zealand

Elections New Zealand {{electorates of New Zealand New Zealand electorates Politics of the Wellington Region 1996 establishments in New Zealand