Clutha-Southland

Clutha-Southland was promulgated as one of the original 65 MMP electorates, centred on Southland district and covering an area stretching from Fiordland across the far south of the South Island to the south Otago coast. Its largest population centres were Gore and Balclutha. In 2008, the seat of Otago was abolished and split between the Waitaki and Clutha-Southland electorates, and parts of Central Otago, primarily around Arrowtown, Queenstown and Roxburgh were also transferred to Clutha-Southland.

Clutha-Southland was the successor to the old Wallace, Clutha and Awarua constituencies. Its boundaries had changed at all three redistributions undertaken since its creation, as dwindling populations in both the old Clutha-Southland electorate and in the neighbouring Invercargill electorate have forced both seats northwards to ensure every electorate population stays within certain limits. This trend stopped in the 2013 redistribution, however, with both the Clutha-Southland and Invercargill electorates remaining unchanged in area,^[1] and then reversed in the 2020 redistribution, with the electorate gaining a large area around Alexandra from Waitaki, but losing the Balclutha area to the new Taieri electorate and Tuatapere to Invercargill.^[2] It was renamed Southland as it no longer included the Clutha area.

Because of its largely rural nature, Clutha-Southland was one of the National Party's safest seats. Bill English, who is the former Prime Minister, held the seat from 1996 to 2014. English announced in January 2014 that he would retire as the electorate MP at the 2014 general election, becoming a list MP only.^[3][4]

Todd Barclay won the 2014 election by a significant margin over Labour's Liz Craig,^[5] obtaining nearly 64% of the candidate votes.^[6] Barclay became at that time the youngest MP in the House of Representatives.^[7] In 2017, he announced he would not stand for re-election at the 2017 election, after revealing he had secretly recorded staff in his office without their consent.^[8] The seat was won at the election by Hamish Walker, retaining it for the National Party.^[9] Similarly, in 2020, Walker admitted leaking sensitive private patient details about COVID-19 patients,^[10][11][12] and subsequently announced that he would not stand for re-election during the 2020 New Zealand general election.^[13]

In April 2020, the Electoral Commission announced that Clutha-Southland would have its borders substantially changed and that it would be renamed to the Southland electorate. As part of the changes, the Alexandra and the Clyde area would be transferred from Waitaki to Southland while South Otago was transferred to the newly-created Taieri electorate. The Invercargill electorate also expanded into western Southland.^[14][15]

The electorate has been represented by three members of parliament so far.

Key  National  NZ First

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

2011 general election: Clutha-Southland[18]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Bill English		21,375	68.83	+0.96	20,020	62.89	+3.03
	Labour	Tat Loo		5,207	16.77	-4.69	5,160	16.21	-7.73
	Green	Rachael Goldsmith		2,633	8.48	+1.57	2,751	8.64	+3.54
	ACT	Don Nicolson		796	2.56	+0.79	583	1.83	-2.06
	Conservative	Ross Calverley		787	2.53	+2.53	992	3.12	+3.12
	Sovereignty Party	Tony Corbett		130	0.42	+0.42
	Democrats	Robert Mills		128	0.41	+0.41	75	0.24	+0.18
	NZ First						1,556	4.89	+2.02
	United Future						259	0.81	+0.06
	Legalise Cannabis						210	0.66	+0.27
	Māori Party						136	0.43	+0.01
	Mana						48	0.15	+0.15
	Libertarianz						24	0.08	+0.03
	Alliance						17	0.05	-0.13
Informal votes				810			209
Total valid votes				31,056			31,831
	National hold		Majority	16,168	52.06	+5.65

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,395^[19]

2008 general election: Clutha-Southland[20]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Bill English		22,631	67.87	+1.39	20,235	59.87	+2.73
	Labour	Don Pryde		7,156	21.46	-1.74	8,091	23.94	-4.76
	Green	Tim Gow		2,304	6.91	+4.23	1,726	5.11	+2.74
	ACT	Roly Henderson		590	1.77	+0.18	1,315	3.89	+1.98
	Family Party	Paul Tankard		515	1.54	+1.54	193	0.57	+0.57
	Alliance	Marvin Hubbard		149	0.45	+0.45	63	0.19	+0.11
	NZ First						968	2.86	-1.70
	Bill and Ben						259	0.77	+0.77
	United Future						254	0.75	-2.64
	Progressive						226	0.67	-0.09
	Māori Party						141	0.42	-0.21
	Legalise Cannabis						131	0.39	+0.13
	Kiwi						131	0.39	+0.39
	Democrats						18	0.05	-0.03
	Workers Party						18	0.05	+0.05
	Libertarianz						16	0.05	-0.02
	Pacific						8	0.02	+0.02
	RAM						4	0.01	+0.01
	RONZ						2	0.01	-0.004
Informal votes				354			142
Total valid votes				33,345			33,799
	National hold		Majority	15,475	46.41	+3.14

2005 general election: Clutha-Southland
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Bill English		20,020	66.48	+10.83	17,334	57.14	+16.45
	Labour	David Talbot		6,988	23.20		8,705	28.70	-8.62
	NZ First	Dave Mackie		999	3.32	-0.33	1,386	4.57	-2.20
	Green	Robert Guyton		808	2.68		719	2.37	-1.08
	United Future	Joy Lietze		701	2.33	-0.23	1,028	3.39	-3.21
	ACT	John Fraser		479	1.59		579	1.91	-3.20
	Independent	David Webber		121	0.40	+0.15
	Progressive						230	0.76	-0.26
	Destiny						99	0.33
	Legalise Cannabis						79	0.26	-0.24
	Māori Party						63	0.21
	Democrats						26	0.09
	Christian Heritage						24	0.08	-1.07
	Alliance						23	0.08	-0.69
	99 MP						13	0.04
	Family Rights						9	0.03
	Libertarianz						7	0.02
	One NZ						6	0.02	-0.02
	RONZ						3	0.01
	Direct Democracy						2	0.01
Informal votes				211			150
Total valid votes				30,116			30,335
	National hold		Majority	13,032	43.28	+19.84

2002 general election: Clutha-Southland
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Bill English		16,159	55.65	+4.43	11,881	40.69	-1.36
	Labour	Lesley Soper		9,351	32.21	+1.98	9,290	31.82	+1.85
	NZ First	Dave Mackie		1,059	3.65	-0.06	1,977	6.77	+3.37
	United Future	Joy Lietze		742	2.56		1,928	6.60
	Green	Dayle Belcher		605	2.08		1,006	3.45	+0.40
	ACT	Roly Henderson		396	1.36		1,491	5.11	-2.27
	Christian Heritage	Grant Bradfield		365	1.26	-2.37	335	1.15	-2.53
	Progressive	Roger White*		168	0.58	-2.86	299	1.02
	Alliance	Jim Flynn		117	0.40		224	0.77	-5.38
	Independent	David Webber		73	0.25	-0.08
	ORNZ						602	2.06
	Legalise Cannabis						147	0.50	-0.46
	One NZ						13	0.04	-0.01
	Mana Māori						2	0.01	-0.01
	NMP						1	0.00	0.00
Informal votes				185			166
Total valid votes				29,035			29,196
	National hold		Majority	6,808	23.44	+2.45

*Percentage change calculation based on percent as Alliance candidate in 1999 election.

1999 general election: Clutha-Southland[21][22]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Bill English		15,619	51.22	+4.13	12,882	42.05	-0.69
	Labour	Lesley Soper		9,218	30.23	+11.98	9,182	29.97	+10.72
	NZ First	Dave Mackie		1,131	3.71		1,043	3.40	-11.57
	Christian Heritage	Grant Bradfield		1,108	3.63		1,128	3.68
	Alliance	Roger White		1,049	3.44		1,883	6.15	-1.30
	ACT	John Morrison		945	3.10		2,260	7.38	+1.34
	Green	Tim Gow		854	2.80		935	3.05
	South Island	Pat McCarrigan		469	1.54		421	1.37
	Independent	David Webber		102	0.33
	Legalise Cannabis						293	0.96	-0.28
	Christian Democrats						243	0.79
	United NZ						112	0.37	-0.21
	Libertarianz						87	0.28	+0.25
	McGillicuddy Serious						65	0.21	-0.21
	Animals First						57	0.19	+0.07
	One NZ						15	0.05
	Natural Law						8	0.03	-0.05
	Mauri Pacific						6	0.02
	Mana Māori						5	0.02	+0.01
	The People's Choice						5	0.02
	Freedom Movement						4	0.01
	Republican						3	0.01
	NMP						0	0.00
Informal votes				481			339
Total valid votes				30,495			30,637
	National hold		Majority	6,401	20.99	-7.85

45°38′00″S 167°55′00″E / 45.6333°S 167.9167°E / -45.6333; 167.9167