Dunedin North (New Zealand electorate)

Dunedin North (known as North Dunedin between 1946 and 1963) is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament (MP) to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was established for the 1905 election and has existed since.

It is currently held by David Clark of the New Zealand Labour Party, who replaced the long-standing representative Pete Hodgson.^[1] It is considered a safe Labour seat, with Labour holding the seat for all but one term (1975–1978) since 1928.

Make-up of the electorate

As the name suggests, the Dunedin North electorate covers the northern half of the city of Dunedin. It is bordered by Waitaki in the north, Dunedin South in west, south, and south-east, and the Pacific Ocean in the north-east.

The electorate covers what is the equivalent of the Waikouaiti Coast-Chalmers ward of the Dunedin City Council outside the actual urban area of Dunedin. This includes the population centre of Waikouaiti, Karitane, Waitati, Seacliff, Warrington, Port Chalmers, Sawyers Bay, Roseneath, and Aramoana.

In urban Dunedin it covers most of northern, central and western Dunedin. This includes the city centre and the suburbs of City Rise, Pine Hill, Dunedin North, North East Valley, Opoho, Ravensbourne, Mornington, Roslyn, Maori Hill, Leith Valley, Kaikorai Valley, Brockville, Halfway Bush, and Wakari.

A notable influence on voting patterns in the electorate is the location of the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin North. The electorate has the highest proportion of persons aged 15 to 19 in the country, with 14.1%. It also has the highest proportion of people on a student allowance (8.8%), employed in the education and training industry (11.7%), and employed in the health care and social assistance industry (12.3%).^[2]

Dunedin North has a low rate of enrolment compared to New Zealand as a whole. As of 31 May 2012, 78.4% of the estimate eligible population is enrolled to vote, compared to 92.8% nationally. The figure is brought down by the low number of people aged 18 to 24 enrolled — less than half (47.5%) of the estimated eligible population is enrolled, compared to 75.2% nationally. Enrolments of those aged 25 and over are comparable to the national averages.^[3]

History

The electorate was created in 1905, when the City of Dunedin electorate with three members of parliament (and other main centre multi-member electorates) were broken up. From 1946 to 1963 it was called North Dunedin.^[4]

The first representative was Alfred Richard Barclay, who had previously represented the City of Dunedin electorate.^[5] In the 1908 election, he was defeated by George M. Thomson, who served for two parliamentary terms before being defeated.^[6]

Barclay was succeeded by Andrew Walker representing the United Labour Party in the 1914 election. The remnants of United Labour formed the New Zealand Labour Party in 1916 and Walker became the new party's first President. He served for one parliamentary term until the 1919 election, when he was defeated by the Independent Edward Kellett. Kellett died during the parliamentary term on 15 May 1922,^[7] and this caused the 1922 by-election, which was won by James Wright Munro.^[8]

Munro was confirmed at the 1922 general election,^[8] but was defeated by Harold Livingstone Tapley in the 1925 election.^[9] Munro in turn defeated Tapley at the 1928 election and then served the electorate until his death on 27 May 1945.^[8]

Munro's death caused the 1945 by-election, which was won by Robert Walls.^[8] Walls served the electorate until his death on 6 November 1953. This caused the 1953 by-election, which was won by Ethel McMillan, who served the electorate until her retirement in 1975.

McMillan was succeeded by Richard Walls of the National Party in the 1975 election, who held the electorate for one parliamentary term before being defeated by Labour's Stan Rodger in the 1978 election. Rodger retired in 1990 and was succeeded by Pete Hodgson. Hodgson served the electorate until his retirement in 2011.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Liberal     Independent     Reform     United Labour     Labour     National     Green     ACT  

List MPs

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

¹ Hilary Calvert entered parliament as a list MP on 24 September 2010 after David Garrett resigned.

Election results

2011 election

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 40,356^[11]

2008 election

General Election 2008: Dunedin North[12]
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Pete Hodgson		17,127	52.62	−2.46	14,608	44.24	−10.58
	National	Michael Woodhouse		9,972	30.64	−0.79	9,692	29.35	+4.21
	Green	Metiria Turei		3,611	11.09	+3.64	5,221	15.81	+4.99
	ACT	Hilary Calvert		573	1.76	+1.15	749	2.27	+1.28
	Legalise Cannabis	Julian Crawford		483	1.48	−0.06	143	0.43	+0.14
	Alliance	Victor Billot		448	1.38	+0.54	106	0.32	+0.12
	United Future	Mary Edwards		228	0.70	−1.32	312	0.94	−1.82
	Democrats	Olive McRae		105	0.32	+0.32	36	0.11	+0.05
	NZ First						1,132	3.43	+0.58
	Progressive						310	0.94	−1.38
	Bill and Ben						252	0.76	+0.76
	Māori						230	0.70	+0.41
	Kiwi						125	0.38	+0.38
	Family Party						57	0.17	+0.17
	Workers Party						18	0.05	+0.05
	Pacific						14	0.04	+0.04
	Libertarianz						9	0.03	−0.01
	RAM						4	0.01	+0.01
	RONZ						2	0.01	−0.01
Informal votes				234			89
Total Valid votes				32,547			33,020
	Labour hold		Majority	7155	21.98	−1.67

2005 election

General Election 2005: Dunedin North
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Pete Hodgson		17,769	55.08	−4.42	17,915	54.82	+5.11
	National	Katherine Rich		10,139	31.02	+7.94	8,217	25.14	+8.95
	Green	Philippa Jamieson		2,405	7.46	+0.59	3,536	10.82	−1.54
	United Future	Mark Peters		652	2.02	−0.34	901	2.76	−2.78
	Legalise Cannabis	Jason Baker-Sherman		498	1.54	−0.51	95	0.29	−0.42
	Progressive	James Boyack		330	1.02	−0.02	431	1.32	−0.65
	Alliance	Victor Billot		270	0.84	−1.14	65	0.20	−2.89
	ACT	Willie Martin		196	0.61	−1.15	322	0.99	−3.20
	NZ First						931	2.85	−1.61
	Māori						96	0.29	+0.29
	Destiny						78	0.24	+0.24
	Christian Heritage						35	0.11	−0.72
	Democrats						21	0.06	+0.06
	Libertarianz						14	0.04	+0.04
	99 MP						10	0.03	+0.03
	Direct Democracy						4	0.01	+0.01
	One NZ						4	0.01	−0.04
	RONZ						4	0.01	+0.01
	Family Rights						3	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				241			71
Total Valid votes				32,259			32,682
	Labour hold		Majority	7,630	23.65	−12.36

2002 election

General Election 2002: Dunedin North[13]
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Pete Hodgson		17,573	59.50	−0.88	14,866	49.71	+1.83
	National	Katherine Rich		6,936	23.49	−3.76	4,841	16.19	−4.26
	Green	Philippa Direen		2,028	6.87	+2.65	3,697	12.36	+4.93
	United Future	Todd Whitcombe		697	2.36	+2.36	1,658	5.54	+5.54
	Legalise Cannabis	Paul John McMullan		606	2.05	+0.13	212	0.71	+0.71
	Alliance	Carolyn Payne-Harker		586	1.98	−4.32	924	3.09	−9.32
	ACT	Willie Martin		520	1.76	−1.17	1,254	4.19	−0.53
	Progressive	Frede Jorgensen		306	1.04	+1.04	588	1.97	+1.97
	Christian Heritage	Glenn Peoples		280	0.95	−0.94	248	0.83	+0.83
	NZ First						1,333	4.46	+3.74
	ORNZ						253	0.85	+0.85
	One NZ						15	0.05	+0.05
	Mana Māori						9	0.03	+0.03
	NMP						6	0.02	+0.02
Informal votes				291			99
Total Valid votes				29,532			29,904
Turnout				29,904	79.1
	Labour hold		Majority	10,637	36.01	−4.64

1999 election

General Election 1999: Dunedin North[13]
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Pete Hodgson		18,856	60.38		15,052	47.88
	National	Katherine Rich		6,161	19.73		6,427	20.45
	Alliance	Quentin Findlay		1,968	6.30		3,902	12.41
	Green	Michael Tritt		1,318	4.22		2,336	7.43
	ACT	Hilary Calvert		915	2.93		1,485	4.72
	Legalise Cannabis	Paul John McMullan		599	1.92		—
	Christian Heritage	David Harris		589	1.89		—
	South Island	Alan McDonald		404	1.29		—
	NZ First	Donna Waipouri-Baxter		224	0.72		401	1.28
	McGillicuddy Serious	Bernard Smith		152	0.49		—
	NMP	Patrick Byrne		41	0.13		—
	United NZ						151	0.48
Total Valid votes				31,227			31,435
	Labour hold		Majority	12,695	40.65

Notes

References

• Scholefield, Guy Hardy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand parliamentary record, 1840-1949. Wellington: Govt. Printer. 

External links

• Dunedin North electorate profile (Parliamentary Library)