Editorial: Town out on a limb

Steve Chadwick

Little old Kawerau has come out as the poor cousin in the latest shake-up of electoral boundaries.

The Electoral Commission has confirmed Te Puke will move into the Rotorua electorate, while Kawerau will join the East Coast.

According to an Electoral Commission report it has made adjustments to the electorates of Bay of Plenty and Tauranga to meet the quota requirements for Rotorua after it moved Kawerau to the East Coast electorate.

For Kawerau it means their MP will be sitting in Gisborne, which isn't ideal.

Kawerau has in the past had a huge say in who the Rotorua MP is.

It was only the inclusion of the pro-Labour community in our electorate that gave former Labour MP (and now our mayor) Steve Chadwick a substantial 655 winning margin over her main rival, National's Gil Stehbens, in the 2005 general election. Three years later, Kawerau couldn't keep her in when she was defeated by National's Todd McClay.

Naturally, new Rotorua Labour hopeful Tamati Coffey is gutted to lose Kawerau. The area no doubt suits his pitch better than it does in Te Puke.

But there's no point crying about it. What's done is done and it's time to move forward. I see on social media, Mr Coffey reacted swiftly by organising a pamphlet drop in Te Puke.

Mr McClay, on the other hand, is rather chuffed to have Te Puke under his wing now as, on paper, his majority has increased.

Call him a psychic or just lucky, Mr McClay has had a relationship with Te Puke since sharing an office there with MP Tony Ryall, who is standing down at the next election, for the past six years.

So while these boundary changes seem like a win for the right, we will only know for certain after the election on Saturday, September 20.