Te Tai Tonga

Te Tai Tonga is geographically by far the largest of the seventy-one electorates of New Zealand, covering all of the South Island, Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands, all the islands in the Southern Ocean and a large part of the Wellington urban area, namely Wellington City as far as Churton Park, and Lower Hutt City south of Naenae and west of Wainuiomata. Besides Wellington, the main centres in Te Tai Tonga are Nelson, Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Queenstown, and Invercargill.

As a Māori electorate, Te Tai Tonga overlaps with the sixteen South Island electorates, as well as Rongotai and Wellington Central, and parts of Ōhāriu and Hutt South.

Te Tai Tonga's size was marginally decreased after a review of boundaries in 2007, when the suburbs of Naenae and Taitā were moved into Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.^[1] The 2013/14 redistribution did not further alter the boundaries of the electorate.^[2] The 2019/20 redistribution adjusted the north-east boundary to align with the northern boundary of Hutt South.^[3]

The main iwi of Te Tai Tonga are Ngāi Tahu/Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha, and in the North Island, Te Āti Awa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Ngāti Poneke,^[4] that latter of which is not iwi in the traditional sense, but an urban pan-tribal grouping. The Chatham Islands was invaded by members of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, and their descendants live there today, alongside the indigenous Moriori.

Te Tai Tonga was established for the 1996 general election, replacing Southern Maori which had existed since the first Māori elections in 1868. The 1996 election was the first to use the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system and a new formula for calculating the number of electorates, which resulted in an increase in the number of Māori electorates from four to five.

The main difference involves the separation of the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay into seats wholly located in the North Island—initially Te Puku O Te Whenua, and since 1999 Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.

Whetū Tirikatene-Sullivan had served as Southern Maori's representative in Parliament since 1967—during the terms of five different governments and nine Prime Ministers. However, the New Zealand First Party challenger Tū Wyllie tipped her out of the seat in 1996, as sixty years of Labour Party control of the Māori electorates ended.

In 1999 New Zealand First lost its electoral footing after an unpopular term in office, firstly as junior government-coalition partner and then following an internal split in the party, with much of the party's original parliamentary caucus leaving the party ("waka-jumping") to prop up the government of Jenny Shipley (although Wyllie himself did not join the breakaway group). Along with a drop in the New Zealand First vote from thirteen to four percent nationwide came the return of the Māori electorates to Labour and the election of Mahara Okeroa to Parliament as the Labour Party MP for Te Tai Tonga.

A political difference of opinion between many Māori and the Labour Party emerged in 2004, when Helen Clark's Labour government introduced the Seabed and Foreshore Bill, claiming the coastline for the Crown and in the process providing the catalyst for the launch of the Māori Party (7 July 2004), which went on to win four of the seven Māori seats (but not the plurality of the party votes cast in those seats) at the 2005 general election. Te Tai Tonga did not form part of this electoral sea-change, with Okeroa's majority slashed from 8,000 to around 2,500 despite his facing two fewer contenders than in 2002.

Rahui Katene won the electorate for the Māori Party in the 2008 election, defeating the incumbent.^[5] She was defeated after a single term; Rino Tirikatene, the nephew of Tirikatene-Sullivan, won the electorate in 2011 with a margin of 1,475 votes.^[6] He was returned in the 2014 and 2017 elections with increased majorities.^[7]

Key

  NZ First   Labour   Te Pāti Māori   Green

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

2023 general election: Te Tai Tonga[8]
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	%	±%
	Te Pāti Māori	Tākuta Ferris		12,828	46.80	+21.39	6,447	22.69	+14.00
	Labour	N Rino Tirikatene		10,004	36.49	–12.39	10,396	36.59	–22.11
	Legalise Cannabis	Rebecca Rae Robin		2,852	10.40	+4.48	479	1.68	–0.43
	Independent	Geoffrey Karena Fuimaono Puhi		816	2.97	—
	Green						4,605	16.20	+4.82
	National						2,453	8.63	+2.99
	NZ First						1,557	5.48	+2.08
	ACT						659	2.31	–0.44
	Opportunities						549	1.93	+0.10
	New Zealand Loyal						471	1.65	—
	Freedoms NZ						154	0.54	—
	NewZeal						122	0.42	—
	DemocracyNZ						68	0.28	—
	Animal Justice						50	0.17	—
	Leighton Baker Party						50	0.17	—
	Women's Rights						22	0.07	—
	New Nation						12	0.42	—
	New Conservatives						11	0.38	–0.31
Informal votes				910			302
Total valid votes				27,410			28,409
	Te Pāti Māori gain from Labour		Majority	2,824	10.30	–13.17

2020 general election: Te Tai Tonga[9]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Rino Tirikatene		14,277	48.88	+4.44	17,543	58.70	+2.90
	Māori Party	Tākuta Ferris		7,422	25.41	+4.44	2,596	8.69	+0.29
	Green	Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati		3,324	11.38	–13.12	3,448	11.54	+3.42
	Legalise Cannabis	Anituhia McDonald		1,732	5.92	–1.00	631	2.11	+0.95
	Advance NZ	Matiu Thoms		965	3.30	—	635	2.12	—
	New Conservative	Raymond Tuhaka		606	2.07	—	208	0.69	+0.61
	National						1,685	5.64	–6.83
	NZ First						1,030	3.45	–4.35
	ACT						822	2.75	+2.55
	Opportunities						547	1.83	—
	Vision NZ						130	0.43	—
	ONE						98	0.33	—
	Outdoors						58	0.19	+0.14
	Sustainable NZ						15	0.05	—
	Heartland						7	0.02	—
	Social Credit						7	0.02	—
	TEA						5	0.01	—
Informal votes				879			417
Total valid votes				29,205			29,882
	Labour hold		Majority	6,855	23.47	+3.52

2017 general election: Te Tai Tonga[10]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Rino Tirikatene		10,416	44.44	+2.67	13,484	55.80	+19.1
	Green	Metiria Turei		5,740	24.50	+8.81	1,963	8.12	–8.29
	Māori Party	Mei Reedy-Taare		4,915	20.97	–3.22	2,030	8.40	–2.79
	Legalise Cannabis	Emma-Jane Mihaere Kingi		1,625	6.93	+1.96	280	1.16	–0.20
	National						3,014	12.47	–2.45
	NZ First						1,926	7.80	–5.02
	Opportunities						944	3.91	—
	Mana						123	0.51	–4.42[a]
	Ban 1080						58	0.24	–0.24
	ACT						48	0.20	+0.03
	People's Party						20	0.82	—
	Conservative						18	0.075	–0.68
	Outdoors						11	0.046	—
	United Future						10	0.041	–0.049
	Internet						6	0.025	–4.905[b]
	Democrats						5	0.021	–0.5
Informal votes				738			226
Total valid votes				24,166			23,434
	Labour hold		Majority	4,676	19.95	+2.37

2014 general election: Te Tai Tonga[11]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Rino Tirikatene		8,445	41.77	+1.15	7,607	36.70	–1.82
	Māori Party	Ngaire Button		4,891	24.19	–7.60	2,319	11.19	–2.30
	Green	Dora Roimata Langsbury		3,173	15.69	+0.45	3,402	16.41	+0.59
	Mana	Georgina Beyer		1,996	9.87	+1.73
	Legalise Cannabis	Emma-Jane Mihaere Kingi		1,005	4.97	+0.76	282	1.36	+0.06
	National						2,977	14.92	–0.56
	NZ First						2,657	12.82	+4.06
	Internet Mana						1,021	4.93	–0.99[c]
	Conservative						153	0.74	+0.06
	Ban 1080						99	0.48	+0.48
	ACT						35	0.17	–0.01
	United Future						18	0.09	–0.15
	Democrats						15	0.07	–0.02
	Civilian						9	0.04	+0.04
	Independent Coalition						8	0.04	+0.04
	Focus						3	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				545			125
Total valid votes				20,220			20,730
	Labour hold		Majority	3,554	17.58	+8.75

2011 general election: Te Tai Tonga[6]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Rino Tirikatene		6,786	40.62	–1.18	6,791	38.52	–11.06
	Māori Party	N Rahui Katene		5,311	31.79	–15.51	2,379	13.49	–8.76
	Green	Dora Roimata Langsbury		2,546	15.24	+4.34	2,789	15.82	+8.61
	Mana	Clinton Dearlove		1,360	8.14	+8.14	1,043	5.92	+5.92
	Legalise Cannabis	Emma-Jane Mihaere Kingi		703	4.21	+4.21	230	1.30	+0.26
	National						2,631	14.92	+3.78
	NZ First						1,544	8.76	+3.20
	Conservative						120	0.68	+0.68
	United Future						43	0.24	+0.05
	ACT						32	0.18	–0.48
	Democrats						16	0.09	+0.06
	Alliance						7	0.04	–0.03
	Libertarianz						4	0.02	+0.003
Informal votes				840			268
Total valid votes				16,706			17,629
	Labour gain from Māori Party		Majority	1,475	8.83	+14.34

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 31,933^[12]

2008 general election: Te Tai Tonga[13]
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	%	±%
	Māori Party	Rahui Katene		9,011	47.30		4,414	22.26
	Labour	N Mahara Okeroa		7,962	41.80		9,833	49.58
	Green	Dora Roimata Langsbury		2,076	10.90		1,430	7.21
	National						2,210	11.14
	NZ First						1,102	5.56
	Legalise Cannabis						207	1.04
	Bill and Ben						158	0.80
	ACT						131	0.66
	Progressive						122	0.62
	Family Party						76	0.38
	Kiwi						69	0.35
	United Future						38	0.19
	Alliance						14	0.07
	Workers Party						13	0.07
	Democrats						6	0.03
	Libertarianz						4	0.02
	Pacific						4	0.02
	RAM						2	0.01
	RONZ						0	0.00
Informal votes				656			261
Total valid votes				19,049			19,833
	Māori Party gain from Labour		Majority	1,049	5.51

2005 general election: Te Tai Tonga[14]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Mahara Okeroa		9,015	47.23	–15.94	11,485	57.89
	Māori Party	Monte Ohia		6,512	34.12	+34.12	3,481	17.55
	Green	Metiria Turei		2,296	12.03		1,283	6.47
	Progressive	Russell Caldwell		705	3.69		169	0.85
	Destiny	Maru Samuel		559	2.93		235	1.18
	National						1,462	7.37
	NZ First						1,240	6.25
	United Future						211	1.06
	Legalise Cannabis						159	0.80
	ACT						58	0.29
	Alliance						14	0.07
	Christian Heritage						9	0.05
	Democrats						8	0.04
	Family Rights						7	0.04
	Libertarianz						4	0.02
	One NZ						4	0.02
	99 MP						3	0.02
	Direct Democracy						3	0.02
	RONZ						3	0.02
Informal votes				655			322
Total valid votes				19,087			19,838
	Labour hold		Majority	2,503	13.11	–38.99

Refer to Candidates in the New Zealand general election 1999 by electorate#Te Tai Tonga for a list of candidates.

1996 general election: Te Tai Tonga[15][16][17]
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	%	±%
	NZ First	Tutekawa Wyllie		7,657	37.99		6,576	32.47
	Labour	N Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan		7,372	36.58		7,167	35.39
	Alliance	Hone Kaiwai		1,916	9.51		2,290	11.31
	Independent	Eva Rickard		1,220	6.05
	National	Cliff Bedwell		1,115	5.53		1,732	8.55
	Independent	Honty Whaanga-Morris		873	4.33
	Legalise Cannabis						896	4.42
	Mana Māori						667	3.29
	Christian Coalition						441	2.18
	ACT						232	1.15
	United NZ						52	0.26
	McGillicuddy Serious						37	0.18
	Te Tawharau						35	0.17
	Progressive Green						33	0.16
	Animals First						28	0.14
	Green Society						22	0.11
	Natural Law						12	0.06
	Superannuitants & Youth						9	0.04
	Ethnic Minority Party						7	0.03
	Conservatives						5	0.02
	Libertarianz						4	0.02
	Advance New Zealand						3	0.01
	Asia Pacific United						2	0.01
Informal votes				279			182
Total valid votes				20,153			20,250
	NZ First win new seat		Majority	285	1.41

• Electorate profile, New Zealand Parliament

43°36′00″S 172°00′00″E / 43.6000°S 172.0000°E / -43.6000; 172.0000