Two new electorates confirmed

11.50am

The final electoral boundaries for the next two elections have been released today and confirm that two new electorates will be created.

One of the new electorates is in West Auckland while the other is a Maori seat covering urban Auckland, to be known as Tamaki Makaurau.

The new boundaries drawn up by the Representation Commission follow eight weeks of consultation over draft proposals based on population changes and the numbers of people opting to go on the Maori roll.

The changes mainly reflect the general population drift northwards and the shrinking number of people living in the south of the South Island and the centre of the North Island.

Commission chairman Judge Bernard Kendall said there were a number of changes to the draft boundaries and proposed electorates following the submission process.

There were 199 objections and 80 counter-objections. The commission allowed 117 of the objections and 68 of the counter-objections.

Judge Kendall said many of the objections could not be allowed as they would have required the commission to breach population quotas which required electorate populations to be roughly of the same size.

Changes that were made included "considerable adjustments to the Piako and Port Waikato electorates, resulting in the communities of Huntly, Taupiri and Ngaruawahia being brought into the newly named Piako electorate".

Smaller adjustments were made to a number of proposed electorate boundaries in Auckland and Christchurch, as well as changes to the Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, East Coast, Napier and Tukituki electorates.

Judge Kendall said the East Coast will retain its name instead of the proposed title of Waioeka because of a "significant number" of objections to the change.

The most significant change to the proposed boundaries for Maori electorates was a redrawing of the Te Tai Hauauru electorate.

This caused a flow on-effect for other Maori electorates and in particular to the proposed Pare Hauraki-Pare Waikato and Tamaki Makaurau electorates.

Most of the Tainui tribal areas are now located in the electorate that was to be called Pare Hauraki-Pare Waikato, so instead it will now be called Tainui.

The commission in its report said strong population growth in Auckland had led to proposed changes being confirmed.

Growth in Albany (now to be called East Coast Bays) and Rodney have led to a new electorate called Helensville.

Helensville will take in part of the existing electorates of Rodney, Albany and Waitakere and all of the electorates in the area are adjusted as a result.

Coromandel, which Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons won by only 250 votes last election, remains unchanged, while the Tauranga seat held by a 62-vote margin by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has only minor changes.

There will be seven Maori electorates, 62 general seats, making up a Parliament of 69 electorates and 51 list seats.

The commission is an independent body, but includes representatives of the two main political parties.

- NZPA

www.elections.govt.nz