- Rotorua (New Zealand electorate)
Rotorua is a
New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to theNew Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Rotorua isSteve Chadwick of the Labour Party [ [http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/MPP/MPs/MPs/3/e/e/48MP30531-Chadwick-Steve.htm New Zealand Parliament - Steve Chadwick MP] ] . She has held this position since 1999.Rotorua is an electorate roughly shaped like a fish, positioned in the
Bay of Plenty region in the central North Island. It is dominated by the town for which it is named, and also contains the Western Bay of Plenty towns ofKawerau in the west andMurupara and Galatea on the outskirts of theUrewera National Park. From 2008, its boundaries will extend right out to the Bay of Plenty proper, with the addition of coastline stretching from a cluster of rural towns including Pukehina andMaketu to the outskirts ofTe Puke .Over forty percent of the population of Rotorua is under the age of thirty, much of this because thirty-seven percent of the seat's residents are
Māori , who are on the whole younger than the national average (22.7 years old versus a national average of 35.9) [ [http://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/in-print/kokiri/kokiri-01-2007/average-maori--who-is-she/ “Average” Māori – who is she? Te Puni Kōkiri: Kōkiri 1, 2007] ] . There are also fewer voters earning over $30,000 per year, with the majority of workers coming from working class and semi-skilled professionals. Rotorua also has more unemployed people (6.5%) than most electorates, being ranked 52nd in the nation.A seat based around Rotorua has been a part of the New Zealand electoral landscape since the 1954 election. In that time, it has moved from being a marginal seat that twice favoured the Labour candidate, to being home to two six-term National MPs. With the advent of
Mixed Member Proportional voting in 1996, the Rotorua seat was greatly expanded to include areas previously part of the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Tarawera seats. Both Tarawera and Rotorua were safe National Party seats, and in the ensuing battle for the nomination, incumbentsPaul East andMax Bradford faced off for a nomination eventually secured by Bradford.Despite both seats being reasonably loyal to the National Party, Bradford's tenure as MP for Rotorua was just three years, before being ousted by current MP Steve Chadwick. Chadwick's initial majority of 4,978 blew out to over 7,500 in 2002 before it was reined in to just 662 in 2005, as the National Party consolidated the centre-right vote, with its biggest gains being in the provincial North Island. In 2005, Chadwick's party was less popular than their candidate, coming 1,645 votes behind National. Rotorua is also a seat where the
New Zealand First party does well, with its biggest appeal among provincial New Zealanders, and as results in 1996 indicate, Māori - at both of the last two elections, New Zealand first has polled around three percent higher in Rotorua than it did in the rest of New Zealand.Members of Parliament for Rotorua
Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.
sourced from [http://2005.electionresults.govt.nz/electorate-48.html electionresults.govt.nz]
References
External links
* [http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/E8484BCF-68FA-4D44-8873-D3160F0B572A/188/Rotorua1.pdf Electorate Profile] "Parliamentary Library"
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