Wellington Central

Wellington Central is an electorate of New Zealand, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Its current MP is Labour's Marian Hobbs.

Wellington Central covers the central city and its suburban periphery, stretching from Karori, Wilton and Wadestown in the west, to the summit of Mount Victoria in the east, and down to a boundary with Rongotai near Wellington Hospital. Prior to the 1999 election, its boundaries extended further north to include the affluent suburbs of Ngaio and Khandallah. Wellington Central is one of the most affluent and well-educated constituencies in New Zealand. It is home to many government agencies, as well as the Parliamentary complex and two universities.

History

Wellington Central was established in 1905 when the multi-member urban electorate City of Wellington was replaced by three new seats: Wellington East, Wellington North and Wellington Central. It was nominally abolished in 1993, when a redistribution moved its boundary west, resulting in the new name of Wellington-Karori. Three years later, a new, larger Wellington Central was created as one of the 65 original MMP constituiences in time for the 1996 election. A prominent holder of the seat was Labour Party leader Peter Fraser, who was Prime Minister from 1940-49.

The first elected MMP representative was ACT Party leader Richard Prebble, controversially elected in 1996 after National Party leader Jim Bolger indicated that National voters should give their electorate vote to Prebble rather than to National's candidate Mark Thomas, in order for ACT to get into parliament. Prebble would eventually became the third representative from Wellington Central in three elections to face defeat after a single term in office. Labour's Marian Hobbs has held the seat since defeating Prebble in 1999.

A documentary, "Campaign", was produced by Tony Sutorius about the events surrounding the 1996 election campaign in the electorate. [http://www.unreal.co.nz/C_SST.html]

Members of Parliament for old Wellington Central seat

List MPs from Wellington Central

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

Election results

=2005 election=

Note: lines coloured beige denote the winner of the electorate vote. Lines coloured pink denote a candidate elected to Parliament from their party's list.sourced from [http://2005.electionresults.govt.nz/electorate-58.html electionresults.govt.nz]

External links

* [http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PubRes/Research/Electorates/c/5/c/c5cba0a56f6c47fbbc3264cddbaebf59.htm Electorate Profile] "Parliamentary Library"
* [http://2005.electionresults.govt.nz/electorate-58.html Election results for Wellington Central at the 2005 election] Elections New Zealand
* [http://2002.electionresults.govt.nz/electorate-58.html Election results for Wellington Central at the 2002 election] Elections New Zealand