Wairarapa electorate boundaries used since the
Wairarapa is a 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
The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, ...
. It was first created in 1858 (with the first election in 1859) and existed until 1881. It was recreated in 1887 and has since existed continuously. In the early years, the electorate was for a time represented by two members. Wairarapa has been held by
Kieran McAnulty
Kieran Michael McAnulty (born 31 January 1985) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician. First elected to parliament in 2017, he is a minister outside Cabinet and the Member of Parliament for the Wairarapa electorate. Formerly the Chief Governm ...
since the .
Population centres
The initial 24 New Zealand electorates were defined by Governor
George Grey
Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Go ...
in March 1853, based on the
New Zealand Constitution Act 1852
The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. 72) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that granted self-government to the Colony of New Zealand. It was the second such Act, the previous 1846 Act not having been fully i ...
that had been passed by the British government. The Constitution Act also allowed the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
to establish new electorates, and this was first done in 1858, when four new electorates were formed by splitting existing electorates. Wairarapa was one of those four electorates, and it was established by splitting the electorate, and incorporating areas that previously did not belong to any electorate. Settlements in the initial area were
Featherston
Featherston is a surname of English origin, at least as old as the 12th century. The link with "Featherstone" is probably not traceable, but people researching both spellings (and others such as "de Fetherestanhalgh") contribute to the collection o ...
,
Carterton,
Eketahuna, and
Pahiatua
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. For the 1860 election, there were 266 voters registered.
In the 1887 electoral redistribution, although the
Representation Commission was required through the Representation Act 1887 to maintain existing electorates "as far as possible", rapid population growth in 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 ...
required the transfer of three seats 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 ...
to the north. Ten new electorates were created, and one former electorate, Wairarapa, was recreated.
The electorate boundaries were last adjusted in the 2007 redistribution. No boundary adjustments were undertaken in the subsequent 2013/14 or 2019/20 redistributions.
The current electorate includes the following population centres (approximate population in brackets) from the
Wairarapa
The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...
area of the
Wellington region
Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is a non-unitary region of New Zealand that occupies the southernmost part of the North Island. The region covers an area of , and has a population of
T ...
, the
Tararua District
The Tararua District is a district near the south-east corner of New Zealand's North Island that is administered by the Tararua District Council. It has a population of and an area of 4,364.65 km². The Tararua District Council was created b ...
(part of the
Manawatū-Whanganui
Manawatū-Whanganui (; spelled Manawatu-Wanganui prior to 2019) is a region in the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand, whose main population centres are the cities of Palmerston North and Whanganui. It is administered by the Manawat ...
region) and the
Central Hawke's Bay District
Central Hawke's Bay District is part of the Hawke's Bay Region in the North Island of New Zealand. Formed in 1989, it has an area of 3,333 square kilometres with a population of It had a population of 12,717 people as of the 2013 census. This is ...
(part of the
Hawke's Bay
Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...
region):
*
Masterton
Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...
()
*
Carterton ()
*
Featherston
Featherston is a surname of English origin, at least as old as the 12th century. The link with "Featherstone" is probably not traceable, but people researching both spellings (and others such as "de Fetherestanhalgh") contribute to the collection o ...
()
*
Greytown ()
*
Martinborough
Martinborough ( mi, Wharekaka) is a town in the South Wairarapa District, in the Wellington region of New Zealand. It is 65 kilometres east of Wellington and 35 kilometres south-west of Masterton. The town has a resident population of
The town ...
()
*
Dannevirke ()
*
Pahiatua
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()
*
Woodville ()
*
Waipukurau
Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings.
H ...
()
*
Waipawa
Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census.
The town is locate ...
()
During the 2019/20 boundary review done by the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
,
Kieran McAnulty
Kieran Michael McAnulty (born 31 January 1985) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician. First elected to parliament in 2017, he is a minister outside Cabinet and the Member of Parliament for the Wairarapa electorate. Formerly the Chief Governm ...
, a
List MP
A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs ...
based in the electorate, and Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Alex Walker, proposed that the electorate be renamed to Wairarapa and Central Hawke's Bay in order to acknowledge the communities included in the electorate. Ultimately the commission decided against changing the name.
History
The first election was held on 7 November 1859, and
Charles Carter was the first representative until 1865, when he resigned. He was succeeded by
Henry Bunny from 1865 to 1881. Since 1871, the electorate had two representatives, and the second one was
John Chapman Andrew
John Chapman Andrew (9 March 1822 – 7 December 1907) was a 19th-century Church of England priest, Oxford don, educationist, pastoralist and Member of Parliament in New Zealand.
Born a Yorkshireman, well-educated, he emigrated with his new wif ...
until he resigned in 1877, succeeded by
George Beetham from 1877 to 1881.
From 1881 to 1887 Wairarapa was replaced by two electorates;
Wairarapa North and
Wairarapa South. From 1887, they were replaced by the
Masterton
Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...
and Wairarapa electorates.
Between 1899 and 1919 the Wairarapa electorate swung between
Walter Clarke Buchanan the Conservative then
Reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...
candidate and
J. T. Marryat Hornsby the
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
candidate, changing hands in 1902, 1905, 1908 and 1914. Buchanan's support was in the rural areas, and Hornsby's was in the small towns.
From 1919 to 1928 the electorate was represented by
Alexander McLeod
Alexander McLeod was a Scottish-Canadian who served as sheriff in Niagara, Ontario. After the Upper Canada Rebellion, he boasted that he had partaken in the 1837 Caroline Affair, the sinking of an American steamboat that had been supplying Wi ...
for Reform. In 1928 he was defeated by
Thomas William McDonald
Thomas William McDonald (December 1869 – 14 August 1968), sometimes known as Colonel Mac, was a United Party (New Zealand), United Party Member of Parliament in New Zealand.
Biography Early life
McDonald was born in 1869 in Tasmania. His paren ...
the United (
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
) candidate, but in 1931 McLeod won the seat back.
Ben Roberts represented the electorate for the
Labour Party from the until 1946, when he retired. In the , Roberts was unsuccessfully challenged by
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, ce ...
's
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 ...
.
In the ,
Reg Boorman
Reginald George Boorman (6 February 1935 – 30 October 2016) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Early life and family
Boorman served in the Malayan Emergency in 1957 with the New Zealand Army.
His first marriage was to Carol ...
won the initial count by one vote, but
Creech later challenged that result on the grounds that Boorman had violated new laws about election spending. Creech also challenged more than 200 votes (on various grounds). The Electoral Court upheld Creech's petition, and Creech won the seat in 1988 with a majority of 34 votes (9994 to 9960).
Creech held the Wairarapa electorate for four parliamentary terms. In December 1997, he became Deputy Leader of the National Party. That gave him number two on the National party list, and he did not contest an electorate in the . The National Party stood
Paul Henry in the election, but to the general surprise of political commentators, the typically right-leaning electorate was won by Labour's
Georgina Beyer
Georgina Beyer (born November 1957) is a New Zealand politician and former Labour Party Member of Parliament. In 1995 she was elected mayor of Carterton, making her the world's first openly transgender mayor. In 2005 she became the world's ...
with a 3,033 vote majority to become the world's first
transsexual
Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...
member of parliament. At the , Beyer was easily re-elected with an increased majority of 6,372 votes. Beyer stood in the as a list-only candidate, and the Wairarapa electorate was won by
John Hayes of the National Party.
Hayes held the electorate for three parliamentary terms and retired at the ,
when he was succeeded by National's
Alastair Scott.
Members of Parliament
Key
Single-member electorate
Multi-member electorate
Single-member electorate
List MPs
Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Wairarapa electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.
Election results
2020 election
2017 election
2014 election
2011 election
Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 46,425
2008 election
2005 election
2002 election
1999 election
1996 election
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
1943 election
1938 election
1935 election
1931 election
1928 election
1899 election
1893 election
1890 election
Table footnotes
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
External links
Electorate Profile ''Parliamentary Library''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wairarapa (New Zealand Electorate)
New Zealand electorates
Politics of the Wellington Region
Wairarapa
1858 establishments in New Zealand
1887 establishments in New Zealand
1881 disestablishments in New Zealand