Island Bay was a former
New Zealand electorate, centred on
Island Bay
Island Bay is a coastal suburb of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, situated south of the city centre.
Island Bay lies on the bay which shares its name, one of numerous small bays off Cook Strait and west of Lyall Bay. 500m offshore in ...
in the southern 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 me ...
. The electorate was formed in 1946 and dissolved in 1996.
Population centres
The
1941 New Zealand census
The New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings ( mi, Te Tatauranga o ngā Tāngata Huri Noa i Aotearoa me ō rātou Whare Noho) is a national population and housing census conducted by government department Statistics New Zealand every five y ...
had been postponed due to World War II, so the 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The
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 ...
gained a further two electorates from the
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
due to faster population growth. The abolition of the
country quota
The country quota was a part of the New Zealand electoral system from 1881 until 1945, when it was abolished by the First Labour Government. Its effect was to make urbanUrban electorate were those that contained cities or boroughs of over 2000 pe ...
through the ''Electoral Amendment Act, 1945'' reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 27 electorates were abolished, eight former electorates were re-established, and 19 electorates were created for the first time, including Island Bay.
History
The electorate was held by five MPs from the
Labour Party for the whole of its existence from 1946 to 1996.
Robert McKeen
Robert McKeen (12 July 1884 – 5 August 1974) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Early life
He was born in 1884 in Edinburgh and received his education in West Calder, West Loth ...
was the first representative; he had since the represented the
electorate. McKeen was the
Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1950. He retired from Parliament in 1954.
McKeen was succeeded by
Arnold Nordmeyer
Sir Arnold Henry Nordmeyer (born Heinrich Arnold Nordmeyer, 7 February 1901 – 2 February 1989) was a New Zealand politician. He served as Minister of Finance (1957–1960) and later as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition ...
in the . Nordmeyer was
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
in the
Second Labour Government
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of Time in physics, time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally t ...
from 1957 to 1960, and is remembered for the
black budget
A black budget or covert appropriation is a government budget that is allocated for classified or other secret operations of a nation. The black budget is an account expenses and spending related to military research and covert operations. The ...
which contributed to Labour's defeat in
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Ja ...
.
Nordmeyer had moved to the Island Bay electorate when 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 ...
electorate was abolished.
Gerald O'Brien
John Gerald O’Brien (2 December 1924 – 13 December 2017), known as Gerald O'Brien, was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Early life
O'Brien was born in Wellington on 2 December 1924, the son of John Thomas O'Brien, and was ed ...
was deselected by Labour for the electorate in
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
, and ran against the new Labour candidate
Frank O'Flynn
Francis Duncan O'Flynn (24 October 1918 – 17 October 2003) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Biography
O'Flynn was born in Runanga in 1918. He was the son of Francis Edward O'Flynn and Margaret Helen Valentine Duncan. He re ...
. O'Flynn was
Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...
in the
Fourth Labour Government
The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand governed New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It was the first Labour government to win a second consecutive term since the First Labour Government of 1935 to 1949. The policy agenda o ...
from 1984 to 1987.
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
1951 election
1949 election
1946 election
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
1975, Mr Nathan the National candidate below a defaced poster (photo)
{{Historic electorates of New Zealand , state=collapsed
Historical electorates of New Zealand
Politics of the Wellington Region
1946 establishments in New Zealand
1996 disestablishments in New Zealand