Christchurch Central
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Christchurch Central is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate in the South Island city of Christchurch. The electorate was established for the 1946 election and, until 2011 had always been won by the Labour Party. Since 2008, the incumbent was Brendon Burns but the election night results for the 2011 election resulted in a tie; the special vote results combined with a judicial recount revealed a 47-vote majority for Nicky Wagner, the National list MP based in the electorate. Wagner significantly increased her winning margin in the 2014 election after having declared the electorate "unwinnable" for National earlier in the year following a boundary review.
Contents
Population centres
The 1941 census had been postponed due to World War II, so the 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The North Island gained a further two electorates from the South Island due to faster population growth. The abolition of the country quota through the Electoral Amendment Act, 1945 reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 27 electorates were abolished, eight former electorates were re-established, and 19 electorates were created for the first time, including Christchurch Central.[1]
As the name suggests, the electorate covers the Christchurch Central City, plus several inner suburbs to the north and east of the central city. Since the 2008 election, the following suburbs, in alphabetical order, are at least partially located in the electorate: Avonside, Central City, Edgeware, Linwood, Mairehau, Merivale, North Linwood, Northcote, Papanui, Phillipstown, Redwood, Richmond, Shirley, St Albans, Sydenham, and Waltham.[2] In the 2013/14 redistribution, the electorate lost Mairehau and Shirley to Christchurch East and gained more of Sydenham and Beckenham from Port Hills and more of Redwood from Waimakariri.[3]
History
The Christchurch Central electorate was created in 1946,[4] Labour has won the seat in each election since the electorate's establishment, though a high turnout for the Alliance did see Tim Barnett's 1996 majority come in at under a thousand. The incumbent, Brendon Burns, had a majority in the 2008 election of also just under one thousand.[5]
The first representative was Robert Macfarlane, who had earlier represented the Christchurch South electorate. He held Christchurch Central until the 1969 election, when he retired. He was succeeded by Bruce Barclay, who died in office in 1979. This caused the 18 August 1979 by-election, which was won by Geoffrey Palmer. Palmer would eventually go on to become Prime Minister.[6]
Palmer retired at the 1990 election and was succeeded by Lianne Dalziel. At the 1996 election, i.e. with the advent of MMP, Dalziel did not contest an electorate but stood as a list candidate only. Tim Barnett succeeded her and held the electorate until the 2008 election, when he retired. Brendon Burns succeeded Barnett.
The election night results for the 2011 election resulted in a tie; Burns and Nicky Wagner of the National Party received 10,493 votes each. The outcome of the election thus depended on the special votes.[7] This was the first time a tie result had been achieved since 1928.[8] When the final vote count was announce on 10 December Wagner was declared the winner with a majority of 45 over Burns, making the result the second-smallest majority after Waitakere. Due to the closeness of the results a judicial recount was held where Wagner's Majority increased by 2 votes to 47.[9][10]
When draft electoral boundary changes were released, Wagner declared the electorate "unwinnable" for National. Although she was expected to not contest the 2014 general election, she announced at the end of January 2014 that she will try to defend her seat.[11] Labour chose Tony Milne as their candidate for Christchurch Central.[12] Wagner had a 2,420 majority over Milne.[13] The Labour Party will choose their candidate for the next general election in June 2016, and one of their nominees will be prominent lawyer and earthquake claims advocate Duncan Webb.[14]
Members of Parliament
Christchurch Central has been represented by seven MPs. Since its creation in 1946 until the 2011 general election it had been a safe seat for the Labour Party. Since then, it has been held by the National Party.
Key Labour Alliance NZ First National
List MPs
Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Christchurch Central electorate.
Election | Winner | |
---|---|---|
1996 election | Liz Gordon | |
Ron Mark | ||
1999 election | Liz Gordon | |
2005 election | Nicky Wagner | |
2008 election |
Election results
2014 election
General election 2014: Christchurch Central[15] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
National | Nicky Wagner | 15,346 | 46.22 | +1.69 | 15,301 | 44.66 | +0.03 | ||
Labour | Tony Milne | 12,926 | 38.93 | −5.43 | 8,995 | 26.25 | −3.15 | ||
Green | David Moorhouse | 2,800 | 8.43 | −0.14 | 5,419 | 15.82 | −0.44 | ||
NZ First | George Abraham | 1,245 | 3.75 | +3.75 | 2,462 | 7.19 | +2.23 | ||
Conservative | Michael Cooke | 598 | 1.80 | +0.18 | 1065 | 3.11 | +1.37 | ||
ACT | Toni Severin | 122 | 0.37 | −0.04 | 167 | 0.49 | −0.29 | ||
Māori | Lenis Davidson | 109 | 0.33 | +0.33 | 157 | 0.46 | −0.04 | ||
Democrats | Robin Columbus | 57 | 0.17 | +0.17 | 30 | 0.09 | +0.06 | ||
Internet Mana | 353 | 1.03 | +0.67[lower-alpha 1] | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 165 | 0.48 | −0.16 | ||||||
United Future | 79 | 0.23 | −0.31 | ||||||
style="background-color: Template:The Civilian Party/meta/color; width: 5px;" | | [[The Civilian Party|Template:The Civilian Party/meta/shortname]] | 40 | 0.12 | +0.12 | |||||
Ban 1080 | 27 | 0.08 | +0.08 | ||||||
Independent Coalition | 3 | 0.01 | +0.01 | ||||||
Focus | 1 | 0.00 | +0.00 | ||||||
Informal votes | 281 | 108 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 33,203 | 34,264 | |||||||
Turnout | 34,480 | 78.01 | +6.32 | ||||||
National hold | Majority | 2,420 | 7.29 | +7.12 |
2011 election
General election 2011: Christchurch Central[16] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
National | Nicky Wagner | 12,064 | 44.53 | +3.61 | 12,506 | 44.63 | +7.05 | ||
Labour | Brendon Burns | 12,017 | 44.36 | +0.52 | 8,240 | 29.40 | -9.96 | ||
Green | David Moorhouse | 2,321 | 8.57 | +0.14 | 4,556 | 16.26 | +5.09 | ||
Conservative | Michael Cooke | 439 | 1.62 | +1.62 | 487 | 1.74 | +1.74 | ||
Independent | Luke Chandler | 138 | 0.51 | +0.51 | |||||
ACT | Toni Severin | 110 | 0.41 | -1.09 | 219 | 0.78 | -1.93 | ||
NZ First | 1,391 | 4.96 | +1.83 | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 180 | 0.64 | +0.08 | ||||||
United Future | 151 | 0.54 | -0.18 | ||||||
Māori | 139 | 0.50 | -0.20 | ||||||
Mana | 100 | 0.36 | +0.36 | ||||||
Alliance | 24 | 0.09 | -0.04 | ||||||
Libertarianz | 22 | 0.08 | +0.01 | ||||||
Democrats | 9 | 0.03 | -0.02 | ||||||
Informal votes | 532 | 237 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 27,089 | 28,024 | |||||||
National gain from Labour | Majority | 47 | 0.17 | +3.08 |
Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 39,419[17]
2008 election
General Election 2008: Christchurch Central[18] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | Brendon Burns | 14,078 | 43.83 | -8.74 | 12,999 | 39.36 | -8.95 | ||
National | Nicky Wagner | 13,143 | 40.92 | 11.65 | 12,409 | 37.58 | +7.07 | ||
Green | Jan McLauchlan | 2,708 | 8.43 | +1.78 | 3,688 | 11.17 | +1.47 | ||
Progressive | Somnath Bagchi | 598 | 1.86 | -1.34 | 697 | 2.11 | +0.25 | ||
Legalise Cannabis | Michael Britnell | 487 | 1.52 | - | 187 | 0.57 | +0.20 | ||
ACT | Toni Severin | 482 | 1.50 | +0.49 | 897 | 2.72 | +1.66 | ||
Kiwi | Andrew Beaven | 353 | 1.10 | - | 218 | 0.66 | - | ||
Workers Party | Byron Clark[19] | 164 | 0.51 | +0.24 | 33 | 0.10 | |||
Alliance | Greg Kleis | 103 | 0.32 | - | 41 | 0.12 | +0.01 | ||
NZ First | 1,036 | 3.14 | -0.90 | ||||||
United Future | 239 | 0.72 | -2.32 | ||||||
Māori | 230 | 0.70 | 0.36 | ||||||
Bill and Ben | 187 | 0.57 | - | ||||||
Family Party | 87 | 0.26 | - | ||||||
Pacific | 31 | 0.09 | - | ||||||
Libertarianz | 21 | 0.06 | +0.04 | ||||||
Democrats | 16 | 0.05 | +0.00 | ||||||
RONZ | 5 | 0.02 | +0.00 | ||||||
RAM | 2 | 0.01 | - | ||||||
Informal votes | 306 | 119 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 32,116 | 33,023 | |||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 935 | 2.91 | -20.38 |
2005 election
General Election 2005: Christchurch Central[20] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | Tim Barnett | 17,685 | 52.57 | 16,652 | 48.31 | ||||
National | Nicky Wagner | 9,849 | 29.28 | 10,515 | 30.51 | ||||
Green | Natalie Cutler-Welsh | 2,236 | 6.65 | 3,342 | 9.70 | ||||
NZ First | Kevin Gardener | 1,022 | 3.04 | 1,391 | 4.04 | ||||
Progressive | Megan Woods | 1,077 | 3.20 | 643 | 1.87 | ||||
United Future | John van Buren | 761 | 2.26 | 1,048 | 3.04 | ||||
ACT | Shirley Marshall | 340 | 1.01 | 364 | 1.06 | ||||
Destiny | Anita Breach | 338 | 1.01 | 144 | 0.42 | ||||
Māori | Darryl Gregory | 188 | 0.56 | 116 | 0.34 | ||||
Workers Party | Byron Clark | 90 | 0.27 | ||||||
Communist League | Annalucia Vermunt | 53 | 0.16 | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 125 | 0.36 | |||||||
Alliance | 40 | 0.12 | |||||||
Christian Heritage | 37 | 0.11 | |||||||
Democrats | 15 | 0.04 | |||||||
99 MP | 10 | 0.03 | |||||||
Libertarianz | 9 | 0.03 | |||||||
Direct Democracy | 7 | 0.02 | |||||||
RONZ | 5 | 0.01 | |||||||
Family Rights | 4 | 0.01 | |||||||
One NZ | 2 | 0.01 | |||||||
Informal votes | 410 | 193 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 33,639 | 34,469 | |||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 7,836 |
2002 election
General election 2002: Christchurch Central[21] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | Tim Barnett | 17,190 | 13,853 | ||||||
National | Nicky Wagner | 6,837 | 5,338 | ||||||
Green | 1,791 | 3,479 | |||||||
United Future | 1,160 | 2,118 | |||||||
Christian Heritage | 874 | 430 | |||||||
ACT | 762 | 1,845 | |||||||
Progressive | 761 | 930 | |||||||
Alliance | Liz Gordon | 635 | 598 | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 469 | 327 | |||||||
Communist League | Appu Baskaran | 99 | |||||||
NZ First | 2,106 | ||||||||
ORNZ | 280 | ||||||||
One NZ | 16 | ||||||||
Mana Māori | 10 | ||||||||
NMP | 3 | ||||||||
Informal votes | 516 | 135 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 30,578 | 31,333 | |||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 10,353 |
1999 election
General Election 1999: Christchurch Central[22][23] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | Tim Barnett | 17,229 | 52.80 | 13,407 | |||||
National | John Stringer | 7,825 | 23.98 | 8,887 | |||||
Alliance | Liz Gordon | 2,690 | 8.24 | 3,369 | |||||
Green | Diana Pennell | 1,658 | 5.08 | 2,421 | |||||
ACT | Katherine Sillars | 951 | 2.91 | 1,731 | |||||
Christian Heritage | John Bryant | 689 | 2.11 | 695 | |||||
NZ First | John Ballantyne | 641 | 1.96 | 880 | |||||
Future NZ | Daryl Gregory | 481 | 1.47 | 423 | |||||
McGillicuddy Serious | Cecil Murgatroyd | 232 | 0.71 | 56 | |||||
Independent | David Ball | 132 | 0.40 | ||||||
Communist League | Ruth Gray | 51 | 0.16 | ||||||
National Democrats | Anton Foljambe | 44 | 0.13 | ||||||
Dominion Workers | Clifford Mundy | 9 | 0.03 | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 584 | ||||||||
United NZ | 154 | ||||||||
Libertarianz | 132 | ||||||||
South Island | 69 | ||||||||
Animals First | 58 | ||||||||
Natural Law | 17 | ||||||||
Mauri Pacific | 7 | ||||||||
One NZ | 7 | ||||||||
Republican | 7 | ||||||||
Mana Māori | 6 | ||||||||
NMP | 4 | ||||||||
Freedom Movement | 2 | ||||||||
People's Choice Party | 2 | ||||||||
Informal votes | 267 | ||||||||
Total Valid votes | 32,918 | ||||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 9,404 |
1996 election
General election 1996: Christchurch Central[24][25][26] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. |
|||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party Votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | Tim Barnett | 9,689 | 32.28 | 9,967 | 32.79 | ||||
National | Kerry Sullivan | 9,036 | 30.10 | 9,355 | 30.77 | ||||
Alliance | Liz Gordon | 6,377 | 21.25 | 4,372 | 14.38 | ||||
NZ First | Ron Mark | 3,067 | 10.22 | 2,434 | 8.01 | ||||
ACT | Matthew Ball | 953 | 3.18 | 1,517 | 4.99 | ||||
Progressive Greens | Gillian Baillie | 386 | 1.29 | 106 | 0.35 | ||||
United NZ | Jacinta Grice | 224 | 0.75 | 226 | 0.74 | ||||
Natural Law | Raymond Cain | 112 | 0.37 | 66 | 0.22 | ||||
Independent | David Christopher Ball | 102 | 0.34 | ||||||
Communist League | Patrick Brown | 69 | 0.23 | ||||||
Christian Coalition | 1162 | 3.82 | |||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 931 | 3.06 | |||||||
McGillicuddy Serious | 102 | 0.34 | |||||||
Animals First | 85 | 0.28 | |||||||
Green Society | 19 | 0.06 | |||||||
Superannuitants & Youth | 16 | 0.05 | |||||||
Mana Māori | 11 | 0.04 | |||||||
Ethnic Minority Party | 10 | 0.03 | |||||||
Conservatives | 8 | 0.03 | |||||||
Libertarianz | 7 | 0.02 | |||||||
Advance New Zealand | 3 | 0.01 | |||||||
Asia Pacific United | 1 | 0.00 | |||||||
Te Tawharau | 1 | 0.00 | |||||||
Informal votes | 476 | 92 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 30,015 | 30,399 | |||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 4,378 | 11.47 |
1993 election
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Lianne Dalziel | 9,841 | 55.21 | ||
National | A Rowe | 3,652 | 20.49 | ||
Alliance | M Vercoe | 3,501 | 19.64 | ||
Christian Heritage | Tony Le Cren | 413 | 2.32 | ||
McGillicuddy Serious | K Kelly | 240 | 1.35 | ||
Natural Law | G Martin | 126 | 0.71 | ||
Communist | C Bain | 52 | 0.29 | ||
Majority | 6,189 | 34.72 | |||
Informal votes | 764 | 4.11 | |||
Turnout | 18,589 | 82.61 | |||
Registered electors | 22,502 |
1979 by-election
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Geoffrey Palmer | 6,149 | 64.20 | +3.03 | |
Social Credit | Terry Heffernan | 1,759 | 18.37 | +9.02 | |
National | D. P. Duncan | 1,634 | 17.06 | -8.55 | |
Tory | S. A. Sadler | 26 | 0.27 | ||
Economic Euthenics Party | Michael Hansen | 10 | 0.10 | ||
Majority | 4,390 | 45.83 | +10.27 | ||
Turnout | 9,578 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | +11.58 |
Table footnotes
Notes
- ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 91–96.
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- ↑ New Zealand Parliament — Brendon Burns MP
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- ↑ Christchurch Central results, 2011
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- ↑ election result Christchurch Central
- ↑ Byron Clark contested the seat in the 2005 election for the same party, which was then called the Anti-Capitalist Alliance.
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- ↑ 2002 election results
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- ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 182.
References
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External links
- Electorate Profile — 2005, Parliamentary Library
- Electorate Profile — 2008, Parliamentary Library