Rongotai (New Zealand electorate)

Rongotai shown as part of Wellington

Rongotai is a New Zealand electorate, returning a single member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Rongotai is Annette King, of the Labour Party. She has held this position since 1996. The electorate covers the suburbs of Miramar, Rongotai itself, Lyall Bay, Island Bay, Newtown, Beramphore, Newtown, Kilbirnie, Owhiro Bay, Haitaitai, Seatoun, Roseneath, southern areas of Brooklyn, and Waitangi, Chatham Islands.

Description

The Rongotai electorate is centred on the southern and eastern suburbs of Wellington City. It stretches from Miramar in the east to take in the suburbs of Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay and Hataitai and runs from the south coast at Island Bay up through the southern section of the Brooklyn Hill to an east-west border next to Wellington Hospital in Newtown. Because Wellington Airport is within Rongotai's boundaries, the constituency also contains the Chatham Islands. It is named after the suburb of Rongotai which is roughly in its centre.

History

Rongotai was one of the original 65 MMP electorates drawn in 1994 ahead of the 1996 election. It is the successor to the old Island Bay and Miramar electorates, though the areas in these seats in the orbit of the central city were incorporated into a redrawn Wellington Central electorate. A revision after 1996 pulled the boundary southwards, moving the suburbs around the Basin Reserve and the Massey University campus into Wellington Central.

Labour's Annette King has been elected and re-elected as the member of parliament for Rongotai at all six elections up to 2011. In five out of the six elections, Labour also won the party vote; the exception being in 1996 when National outpolled Labour by just 68 votes.

Members of Parliament

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

Key

Labour	ACT	United Future
Green	National

Election	Winner
1996 election 1999 election 2002 election 2005 election 2008 election 2011 election		Annette King

List MPs

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Rongotai electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

Election	Winner
1999 election		Stephen Franks
2002 election		Gordon Copeland
2005 election		Gordon Copeland
July 20081		Russel Norman
2008 election		Christopher Finlayson
2011 election		Christopher Finlayson
		Russel Norman

¹ Norman entered Parliament when Nándor Tánczos resigned

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Rongotai
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Annette King		18,179	50.52	-1.93	12,606	34.18	-8.51
	National	Chris Finlayson		9,132	25.38	-2.95	12,168	32.99	+1.63
	Green	Russel Norman		7,262	20.18	+4.34	8,920	24.19	+7.22
	NZ First	Brent Pierson		488	1.36	+1.36	1,640	4.45	+1.93
	Conservative	Bruce Welsh		435	1.21	+1.21	409	1.11	+1.11
	ACT	Joel Latimer		168	0.47	-0.67	238	0.65	-1.34
	Māori	Aroha Rickus		168	0.47	+0.47	251	0.68	-0.24
	Independent	Don Richards		152	0.42	+0.42
	United Future						217	0.59	-0.27
	Mana						198	0.54	+0.54
	Legalise Cannabis						167	0.45	+0.04
	Libertarianz						31	0.08	-0.01
	Alliance						23	0.06	-0.03
	Democrats						11	0.03	+0.02
Informal votes				617			302
Total Valid votes				35,984			36,879
	Labour hold		Majority	9,047	25.14	+1.02

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 46,153

2008 election

General Election 2008: Rongotai
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Annette King		19,614	52.45		16,263	42.69
	National	Christopher Finlayson		10,594	28.33		11,950	31.37
	Green	Russel Norman		5,925	15.84		6,464	16.97
	Kiwi	Gordon Copeland		515	1.38		169	0.44
	ACT	Michael Bridge		425	1.14		758	1.99
	United Future	Karuna Muthu		223	0.60		326	0.86
	Libertarianz	Mitch Lees		100	0.27		34	0.09
	NZ First						960	2.52
	Māori						351	0.92
	Progressive						291	0.76
	Bill and Ben						188	0.49
	Legalise Cannabis						158	0.41
	Family Party						53	0.14
	Pacific						48	0.13
	Alliance						37	0.10
	Workers Party						33	0.09
	RONZ						6	0.02
	Democrats						4	0.01
	RAM						4	0.01
Informal votes				356			167
Total Valid votes				37,396			38,097
	Labour hold		Majority	9,020	21.12

2005 election

General Election 2005: Rongotai
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Annette King		21,376	59.38	+3.23	18,327	49.96
	National	Nicola Young		8,738	24.27	+3.78	10,210	27.84
	Green	Luci Highfield		2,921	8.11		4630	12.71
	United Future	Gordon Copeland		1,581	2.68		1069	2.91
	Māori	Morris Te Whiti Love		499	1.39		232	0.63
	ACT	Gavin Middleton		425	1.18		379	1.03
	Progressive	Vladimir Bell		333	0.93		394	1.07
	Alliance	Jocelyn Brooks		127	0.35		31	0.08
	NZ First						1109	3.02
	Destiny						107	0.29
	Legalise Cannabis						83	0.23
	Christian Heritage						39	0.11
	Libertarianz						20	0.05
	99 MP						18	0.05
	Family Rights						11	0.03
	Democrats						10	0.03
	One NZ						7	0.02
	RONZ						3	0.01
	Direct Democracy						1	0.00
Informal votes				431			164
Total Valid votes				36,000			36,680
	Labour hold		Majority	12,638	35.11	-0.55

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library
• Election results for Rongotai at the 2005 election Elections New Zealand
• Election results for Rongotai at the 2002 election Elections New Zealand