Te Atatū (New Zealand electorate)

Population centres

The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established through an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government. As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed. This had little practical effect for people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island. The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Te Atatu) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.

Te Atatū comprises the suburbs of Waitakere City on the western side of the Whau River in Auckland. The main parts of the seat are the suburbs of Glendene, Te Atatu, Lincoln and Massey. Boundary changes in the leadup to the 2008 election have seen the northern boundary edge northwards to include Massey East, with a small southern block transferred to the neighbouring Waitakere seat.

The makeup of Te Atatū shows that while its population is composed roughly inline with the national average: It is roughly the same ages as the nation (with slightly more residents over fifty), and its average income ($22627) is only slightly lower than the rest of New Zealand. Its main point of demographic difference with its country is ethnic - it has more Asian New Zealanders and more Pacific Islanders than the rest of the country.

History

The Te Atatu electorate was created ahead of the 1978 election by pulling apart the seat of Waitemata; its first MP was future cabinet minister Dr Michael Bassett, who had been the MP for Waitemata from 1972 until 1975 before an anti-labour landslide cost him his job. Bassett held the seat until his retirement in 1990, when a toxic battle to succeed Bassett in an already lean year for Labour passed one of their safe seats into the hands of Brian Neeson. Neeson himself never represented the same seat twice in succession, (having jumped ship to Waitakere in 1993, Waipareia in 1996, to a new, larger Waitakere seat in 1999 before being denied the chance to contest Helensville in 2002), and his departure in 1993, coupled with a reversal of electoral fortune for the National Party (down from 47.8 to 35.1 percent) lead to a victory for incoming Labour MP Chris Carter. In his first three years in Parliament, Carter made news for being the first openly gay member of Parliament.

With the introduction of MMP voting in 1996, Te Atatū was scrapped in favour of a new seat called Waipareira, which covered the same area as Te Atatū, but also included the wealthy harbourside suburbs to the north of the seat. Neeson and Carter were rematched, when the presence of former Labour MP for West Auckland turned New Zealand First candidate Jack Elder, undermined Carter's chances and handed the seat to Neeson by fewer than a thousand votes.

Three years later, Te Atatu was re-established, with the new seat focused more on the working class suburbs at the southern end of Waitakere City and Carter had no such trouble using the seat to springboard back into Parliament. In 2002 and 2005, because the electoral climate favoured Labour, Carter and his party dominated the seat, winning at least 49 percent of the candidate and list vote, but the Labour vote was reduced in the 2008 election.

Members of Parliament

Key

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List MPs

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections since 1999 where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Te Atatū electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

2011 election

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,746