18 April 2002

The electoral boundaries that will be used for the next two general elections were announced by the Representation Commission after being presented to the Governor General today.

The announcement follows eight weeks of public consultation about the proposed boundaries.

Representation Commission chairman Judge Bernard Kendall said the Commission had made a number of adjustments to the proposed boundaries as a result of the objections and counter-objections that were received.

“The Commission was pleased with the level of public involvement in the boundary review exercise. Of the 199 objections and 80 counter-objections, many were in the form of petitions and so represented the views of a much greater number of people. The views and input we received from people with local knowledge of their electorates assisted us to make the final boundary change decisions.”

Judge Kendall said that the Commission carefully considered all of the objections and counter-objections, and objectors and counter-objectors had the option of making their submission to the Commission in person.

Some 117 of the 199 objections were allowed, while 68 of the 80 counter-objections were allowed.

“This demonstrates that ordinary New Zealanders can have an impact on our electoral system, if they choose to get involved,” Judge Kendall said.

“In a number of the situations where objections were not allowed, the Commission could understand and had sympathy for the views of the objectors, but was unable to accommodate the objections because of other factors. In most cases, this was because the population quota required for each electorate did not allow the objection to be accepted.

“This was the case with the large number of objections to the proposed Taranaki-King Country and Whanganui electorates. After lengthy consideration, these objections could not be allowed because of the legislative requirement that each electorate contain approximately the same number of people.”

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

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

In response to a significant number of objections, the electorate of East Coast returns to its former name from the proposed name of Waioeka.

The most significant change to the proposed boundaries for Maori electorates was a redrawing of the Te Tai Hauauru electorate, which resulted in subsequent changes to other Maori electorates, in particular to the proposed Pare Hauraki-Pare Waikato and Tamaki Makaurau electorates. The changes mean that most of the Tainui tribal areas are now located in one electorate. As a result, the proposed Pare Hauraki-Pare Waikato electorate is now called Tainui.

Other changes to Maori electorates include a small change to the Te Tai Tonga electorate.

The new boundaries take effect from today and will stay in place until they are next reviewed following the 2006 population census and Maori Electoral Option.

The maps and details of the boundaries are available at www.elections.org.nz. This information can also be viewed at Land Information New Zealand offices, Te Puni Kokiri Regional Development offices and Registrar of Electors’ offices.

The final boundaries report is available at the elections website: http://www.elections.org.nz

© Scoop Media