- Source: Christchurch Central
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. At the 2017 election Wagner lost the seat to Labour's Duncan Webb, who retained it at the 2020 election.
Population centres
The 1941 New Zealand 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.
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. 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.
History
The Christchurch Central electorate was created in 1946. Labour held the seat for the next 65 years, though a high turnout for the Alliance saw 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.
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 1979 by-election held on 18 August, which was won by Geoffrey Palmer. Palmer eventually went on to become Prime Minister.
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. This was the first time a tie result had been achieved since 1928. When the final vote count was announced 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.
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 would try to defend her seat. Labour chose Tony Milne as their candidate for Christchurch Central. Wagner had a 2,420 majority over Milne. The Labour Party chose Duncan Webb as its candidate for the 2017 general election. He is a prominent lawyer and earthquake claims advocate. Webb narrowly won the seat in 2017, and massively increased his majority at the 2020 election amid that year's Labour landslide.
= Members of Parliament
=Christchurch Central has been represented by eight MPs. Since its creation in 1946 until the 2011 general election it had been a safe seat for the Labour Party. It was then held by the National Party until the 2017 general election when it swung back to Labour.
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 results
= 2023 election
== 2020 election
== 2017 election
== 2014 election
== 2011 election
=Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 39,419
= 2008 election
== 2005 election
== 2002 election
== 1999 election
== 1996 election
== 1993 election
== 1990 election
== 1987 election
== 1984 election
== 1981 election
== 1979 by-election
== 1978 election
== 1975 election
== 1972 election
== 1969 election
== 1966 election
== 1963 election
== 1960 election
== 1957 election
== 1954 election
== 1951 election
== 1949 election
== 1946 election
=Table footnotes
Notes
References
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 published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
External links
Electorate Profile — 2005 Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Parliamentary Library
Electorate Profile — 2008, Parliamentary Library
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Katedral Christchurch
- Katedral Lama Christchurch
- Civic
- Selandia Baru
- Toyota Hilux
- William, Pangeran Wales
- McConnell Dowell
- Bandar Udara Internasional Dubai
- Antarktika
- Cincin Api Pasifik
- Christchurch Central
- Christchurch
- Christchurch Central City
- 2011 Christchurch earthquake
- Christchurch (disambiguation)
- Cathedral Square, Christchurch
- Christchurch Central Library
- Christchurch Airport
- Statue of Robert Falcon Scott, Christchurch
- Christ Church Cathedral, Christchurch
