Te Atatū (New Zealand electorate)

Te Atatū
Single-member constituency for the New Zealand House of Representatives
Location of Te Atatū within Auckland
Region	Auckland
Current constituency
Current MP	Phil Twyford
Party	Labour
List MP	Simon Court (ACT)

Te Atatū (before 2008 spelled Te Atatu, without a macron) is a parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Te Atatū is Phil Twyford of the Labour Party.

Population centres

The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established through an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government. As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill in an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed. This had little practical effect for people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island. The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Te Atatu) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.

Te Atatū comprises the suburbs of West Auckland on the western side of the Whau River in Auckland. The main parts of the seat are the suburbs of Glendene, Te Atatū Peninsula, Te Atatū South, Lincoln and Massey. Boundary changes in the leadup to the 2008 election have seen the northern boundary edge northwards to include Massey East, with a small southern block transferred to the neighbouring Waitakere seat.

The makeup of Te Atatū shows that while its population is composed roughly inline with the national average: It is roughly the same ages as the nation (with slightly more residents over fifty), and its average income ($22627) is only slightly lower than the rest of New Zealand. Its main point of demographic difference with its country is ethnic – it has more Asian New Zealanders and more Pacific Islanders than the rest of the country.

History

The Te Atatu electorate was created ahead of the 1978 election by pulling apart the seat of Waitemata; its first MP was future cabinet minister Michael Bassett, who had been the MP for Waitemata from 1972 until 1975 before an anti-labour landslide cost him his job. Bassett held the seat until his retirement in 1990, when a toxic battle to succeed Bassett in an already lean year for Labour passed one of their safe seats into the hands of Brian Neeson. Neeson opted not to recontest Te Atatu in 1993; instead shifting to Waitakere. His departure, coupled with a reversal of electoral fortune for the National Party (down from 47.8 to 35.1 percent) led to a victory for incoming Labour MP Chris Carter. In his first three years in Parliament, Carter made news for being the first openly gay member of Parliament.

With the introduction of MMP voting in 1996, Te Atatū was briefly abolished in favour of a new seat called Waipareira, which covered the same area as Te Atatū but also included the wealthy harbourside suburbs to the north of the seat. Te Atatu was re-established for the 1999 election, with the new seat focused more on the working class suburbs at the southern end of Waitakere City. Carter, who had lost Waipareira to Neeson and spent three years out of Parliament, returned as Te Atatu MP and held the position in the 2002, 2005 and 2008 elections. Since 2008 the electorate has been spelled Te Atatū, with a macron.

Carter resigned from the Labour Party in 2010 and from Parliament in 2011. He was succeeded by Labour's Phil Twyford.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Labour   National   Independent   Alliance   Green   ACT

Election	Winner
1978 election		Michael Bassett
1981 election
1984 election
1987 election
1990 election		Brian Neeson
1993 election		Chris Carter
(Electorate abolished 1996–1999, see Waipareira)
1999 election		Chris Carter
2002 election
2005 election
2008 election
2011 election		Phil Twyford
2014 election
2017 election
2020 election
2023 election

List MPs

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections since 1999 where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Te Atatū electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

Election	Winner
1999 election		Laila Harré
2005 election		Tau Henare
2008 election
2011 election
2014 election		Alfred Ngaro
2017 election
		Golriz Ghahraman
2020 election		Simon Court
2023 election

Election results

2023

2023 general election: Te Atatū
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 Phil Twyford		14,202	38.55	–19.02	12,460	33.32	–24.73
	National	Angee Nicholas		14,071	38.20	+9.09	14,045	37.56	+14.84
	Green	Zooey Neumann		3,516	9.54	+3.88	4,199	11.23	+4.72
	ACT	Simon Court		2,506	6.80	+2.44	2,412	6.45	+1.32
	Te Pāti Māori	John Tamihere		1,261	3.42	–	588	1.57	+0.90
	Independent	Melanie Philips		482	1.30	–
	NZ First						1,681	4.49	+1.95
	Opportunities						681	1.61	+0.55
	NewZeal						354	0.94	+0.65
	NZ Loyal						282	0.75	–
	Legalise Cannabis						151	0.40	+0.06
	Freedoms NZ						106	0.28	–
	Animal Justice						67	0.17	–
	New Conservatives						67	0.17	–1.24
	Women's Rights						40	0.10	–
	DemocracyNZ						37	0.09	–
	New Nation						25	0.06	–
	Leighton Baker Party						16	0.04	–
Informal votes				794			255
Total valid votes				36,832			37,388
	Labour hold		Majority	131	0.35	–28.11

2020

2020 general election: Te Atatū
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 Phil Twyford		21,253	57.57	+8.67	22,106	58.05	+14.28
	National	Alfred Ngaro		10,745	29.11	−10.51	8,653	22.72	−18.51
	Green	Scott Hindman		2,088	5.66	+1.54	2,480	6.51	+1.64
	ACT	Simon Court		1,610	4.36	+3.66	1,954	5.13	+4.65
	Opportunities	Brendon Monk		538	1.46	—	403	1.06	−0.22
	New Conservative	Okusitino Paseka		449	1.22	+0.74	537	1.41	+1.07
	TEA	Frank Amoah		233	0.63	—	114	0.30	—
	NZ First						966	2.54	−3.87
	Advance NZ						289	0.67	—
	Māori Party						256	0.67	+0.21
	Legalise Cannabis						128	0.34	+0.04
	ONE						110	0.29	—
	Sustainable NZ						31	0.08	—
	Vision NZ						22	0.06	—
	Outdoors						21	0.06	+0.01
	Social Credit						11	0.03	+0.01
	Heartland						2	0.01	—
Informal votes				1,115			319
Total valid votes				36,916			38,083
	Labour hold		Majority	10,508	28.46	+19.18

2017

2017 general election: Te Atatū
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 Phil Twyford		16,774	48.90	+0.79	15,406	43.77	+8.99
	National	Alfred Ngaro		13,590	39.62	+0.14	14,514	41.23	+1.72
	NZ First	David Wilson		1,609	4.69	—	2,256	6.41	-1.94
	Green	Golriz Ghahraman		1,413	4.12	-0.85	1,715	4.87	-3.18
	ACT	Stephen Fletcher		240	0.70	-0.58	170	0.48	-0.87
	New Conservative	Marilyn Johnson		164	0.48	-2.48	120	0.34	-3.39
	Independent	Tua Schuster		133	0.39	—
	Opportunities						451	1.28	—
	Māori Party						161	0.46	+0.03
	Legalise Cannabis						104	0.30	-0.07
	People's Party						42	0.12	—
	United Future						25	0.07	-0.09
	Mana						15	0.04	-1.1
	Outdoors						15	0.04	—
	Internet						14	0.04	-1.1
	Ban 1080						13	0.04	±0
	Democrats						8	0.02	-0.01
Informal votes				381			170
Total valid votes				34,304			35,199
	Labour hold		Majority	3,184	9.28	+0.65

2014

2014 general election: Te Atatū
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 Phil Twyford		15,676	48.11	−5.72	11,603	34.81	−4.10
	National	Alfred Ngaro		12,863	39.48	+4.03	13,614	40.84	−0.35
	Green	Gary Stewart		1,618	4.97	−0.95	2,684	8.05	+0.81
	Conservative	Paddy O'Rourke		965	2.96	−0.79	1,243	3.73	+0.97
	ACT	Stephen Fletcher		416	1.28	+0.23	450	1.35	+0.47
	Legalise Cannabis	Adrian McDermott		328	1.01	+1.01	122	0.37	−0.18
	Internet	Chris Yong		300	0.92	+0.92
	NZ First						2,784	8.35	+1.60
	Internet Mana						380	1.14	+1.14
	Māori Party						142	0.43	−0.20
	United Future						52	0.16	−0.23
	Ban 1080						12	0.04	+0.04
	Independent Coalition						12	0.04	+0.04
	Democrats						9	0.03	−0.04
	Civilian						5	0.01	+0.01
	Focus						0	0.00	0.00
Informal votes				416			223
Total valid votes				32,582			33,335
	Labour hold		Majority	2,813	8.63	−9.75

2011

2011 general election: Te Atatū
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	Phil Twyford		15,860	53.83	+0.39	11,999	38.91	-2.59
	National	Tau Henare		10,444	35.45	-0.79	12,701	41.19	-0.35
	Green	Gary Stewart		1,744	5.92	+2.66	2,231	7.24	+3.23
	Conservative	Cynthia Liu		1,106	3.75	+3.75	851	2.76	+2.76
	ACT	Dominic Costello		308	1.05	-1.85	271	0.88	-2.28
	NZ First						2,081	6.75	+2.56
	Māori Party						193	0.63	-0.21
	Legalise Cannabis						169	0.55	+0.20
	Mana						159	0.52	+0.52
	United Future						121	0.39	-0.48
	Alliance						24	0.08	-0.01
	Democrats						21	0.07	+0.04
	Libertarianz						14	0.05	+0.02
Informal votes				1,067			356
Total valid votes				29,462			30,835
	Labour hold		Majority	5,416	18.38	+1.18

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,746

2008

2008 general election: Te Atatū
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 Chris Carter		16,459	53.44		13,171	41.50
	National	Tau Henare		11,161	36.24		13,183	41.54
	Green	Xavier Goldie		1,003	3.26		1,270	4.00
	ACT	Lech Beltowski		891	2.89		1,002	3.16
	Pacific	Fiasili Jackueline Ah Tong		435	1.41		362	1.14
	Kiwi	Jo van Kempen		260	0.84		123	0.39
	United Future	Talei Solomon-Mua		250	0.81		278	0.88
	Progressive	Pavitra Roy		244	0.79		267	0.84
	Alliance	Bob van Ruyssevelt		94	0.31		27	0.09
	NZ First						1,328	4.18
	Māori Party						264	0.83
	Bill and Ben						180	0.57
	Family Party						134	0.42
	Legalise Cannabis						111	0.35
	Workers Party						12	0.04
	Democrats						8	0.03
	Libertarianz						8	0.03
	RAM						6	0.02
	RONZ						4	0.01
Informal votes				480			174
Total valid votes				30,797			31,738
	Labour hold		Majority	5,298	17.20

2005

2005 general election: Te Atatu
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 Chris Carter		18,087	59.37	-3.12	16,209	52.03
	National	Tau Henare		7,640	25.08	+10.63	9,466	30.38
	NZ First	Moetu Davis		1,016	11.14		1,830	5.87
	United Future	Jo van Kemp		897	2.94		956	3.07
	Green	Kath Dewar		849	2.79		1,064	3.42
	Māori Party	Kelvin Martin		250	0.82		219	0.70
	Progressive	Patriva Roy		226	0.74		347	1.11
	Christian Heritage	Betty Jenkins		205	0.67		97	0.31
	Alliance	Bob van Ruyssevelt		104	0.34		24	0.08
	Independent	Adele Hughes		86	0.28
	Family Rights	Stella Te Paeru Brown-Knowles		77	0.25		101	0.32
	Direct Democracy	Gregory Trichon		56	0.18		23	0.07
	ACT						379	1.03
	Destiny						107	0.29
	Legalise Cannabis						52	0.17
	One NZ						6	0.02
	RONZ						6	0.02
	Libertarianz						5	0.02
	99 MP						4	0.01
	Democrats						4	0.01
Informal votes				370			176
Total valid votes				30,463			31,154
	Labour hold		Majority	10,447	34.29	-13.75

2002

2002 general election: Te Atatu
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 Chris Carter		16,821	62.03		14,128	51.39
	National	Tau Henare		3,889	14.34		3,595	13.07
	NZ First	Christine Ritchie		1,811	6.67		2,953	10.74
	United Future	Anne Drake		1,540	5.67		2,100	7.63
	ACT	Ted Erskine-Legget		875	3.22		1,381	5.02
	Alliance	Bob van Ruyssevelt		654	2.41		618	2.24
	Christian Heritage	Matthew Flannagan		584	2.15		473	1.72
	Progressive	Pasene Taulialo-O-Lilomaiava		365	1.34		490	1.78
	Independent	Helen Wiseman-Dare		197	0.72
	Green						1,248	4.54
	ORNZ						174	0.63
	Legalise Cannabis						132	0.48
	One NZ						16	0.05
	Mana Māori						8	0.02
	NMP						3	0.01
Informal votes				378			169
Total valid votes				27,114			27,488
	Labour hold		Majority	12,932	47.69

1999

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

1993

1993 general election: Te Atatu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Carter	6,889	36.78
	Alliance	Laila Harré	5,501	29.37
	National	Tracey Adams	4,724	25.22
	NZ First	Peter Brown	1,121	5.98
	Christian Heritage	Alan Broadbent	342	1.82
	McGillicuddy Serious	Aaron Lloyd Franklin	89	0.47
	Workers Rights	Bill Bradford	36	0.19
	Natural Law	Judith Ann Boock	27	0.14
Majority			1,388	7.41
Turnout			18,729	96.90	+20.33
Registered electors			22,588

1990

1990 general election: Te Atatu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Brian Neeson	8,662	44.75	+3.48
	Labour	Dan McCaffrey	7,292	37.67
	Green	Warwick Pudney	1,627	8.40
	NewLabour	Sue Pockett	1,277	6.59
	Democrats	Marilyn Jackson	323	1.66	−3.13
	McGillicuddy Serious	Kit Boyes	129	0.66
Majority			1,370	7.07
Turnout			19,355	76.57	−7.30
Registered electors			25,277

1987

1987 general election: Te Atatu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Michael Bassett	10,044	53.18	−1.38
	National	Brian Neeson	7,795	41.27
	Democrats	Marilyn Jackson	906	4.79	−0.72
	NZ Party	G M Oxton	140	0.74
Majority			2,249	11.90	−13.34
Turnout			18,885	83.87	−6.17
Registered electors			22,516

1984

1984 general election: Te Atatu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Michael Bassett	10,786	54.56	+6.17
	National	Frank Diment	5,795	29.31
	NZ Party	Gray Phillips	1,972	9.97
	Social Credit	Marilyn Jackson	1,090	5.51
	Independent	Gordon Raymond Prout	126	0.63
Majority			4,991	25.24	+6.57
Turnout			19,769	90.04	+3.85
Registered electors			21,954

1981

1981 general election: Te Atatu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Michael Bassett	8,577	48.09	−0.90
	National	Stella Noble	5,247	29.42
	Social Credit	Rodney Wilson	4,009	22.48
Majority			3,330	18.67	+2.69
Turnout			17,833	86.19	+16.18
Registered electors			20,688

1978

1978 general election: Te Atatu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Michael Bassett	8,640	48.99
	National	W R Cross	5,821	33.01
	Social Credit	John Geoffrey Rawson	2,923	16.57
	Values	D C Bartle	250	1.41
Majority			2,819	15.98
Turnout			17,634	70.01
Registered electors			25,186

Bibliography

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
• Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946-1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library