Waikato (New Zealand electorate)

The Waikato electorate, whose borders were last altered in 2020,^[1] is in the Waikato region and includes largely rural areas to the north and the west of the city of Hamilton. The Waikato River flows along near its southern boundary then travels north through the electorate. It includes small portions of the outskirts of Hamilton and Cambridge. Towns within the electorate include Morrinsville, Huntly, and Matamata,^[2] each of which have populations around 8,000.

In a piece for the 2020 election, journalist Tom Rowland described the area as "one of the country's most vital regions, home to farmers and agricultural industries that continue to hold New Zealand's economy steady in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic". Rowland considered it to be a key area for future economic development, calling it "the key to activating the Golden Triangle between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga." He also noted that it was the birthplace of both Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, respectively, at the 2020 election.^[3]

The Waikato electorate was first contested in the 1871 election.^[4] James McPherson was elected, but he resigned the same year, on 20 December.^[5] William Jackson won the resulting 1872 by-election. Jackson retired at the end of the parliamentary term in 1875.^[6] Frederick Whitaker won 5 January 1876 election.^[7] In the 1879 election, Whitaker contested the Eden electorate but was beaten by Joseph Tole.^[8][9]

The Waikato electorate was won by John Blair Whyte in the 1879 election, who served for eleven years until 1890 when he retired. Whyte was appointed to the Legislative Council in the following year.^[10] John Bryce, who first became Member of the House of Representatives during the 4th Parliament, succeeded Whyte in the 1890 election, but he resigned in the following year.^[11] The resulting 1891 by-election was won by Edward Lake, who retired at the end of the parliamentary term in 1893.^[12]

The 1893 election was won by Alfred Cadman for the Liberal Party, who had been an MP in various electorates since 1881. At the next election in 1896, Cadman successfully contested the Ohinemuri electorate.^[13] The Waikato electorate was won by Frederic Lang in 1896, who represented the electorate until his defeat by the Liberal Party's Henry Greenslade in the 1905 election.^[14] Greenslade held the electorate until 1911,^[15] when he was defeated by the Reform candidate Alexander Young.^[16]

Young won subsequent elections in 1914 and 1919. In the 1922 election, he successfully contested the newly formed Hamilton electorate.^[16] Young was succeeded by the Liberal candidate Frederick Lye in the Waikato electorate in 1922.^[17] At the 1925 election, Lye was defeated by Reform's Daniel Stewart Reid.^[18] Lye in turn defeated Reid at the 1928 election, but this time standing for the United Party. The United–Reform Coalition was established just before the 1931 election and Lye was again successful.^[17] In the 1935 election, Lye was beaten by Robert Coulter of the Labour Party.^[19] Coulter served only one term in Waikato, as he was defeated by the National Party candidate Stan Goosman in the 1938 election.

Since 1938, the Waikato electorate (when it has existed) has always been held by a National Party member. This trend has lasted through 2020, when the seat was retained by National MP Tim van de Molen.^[3][20] Other electorates which covered parts of this region have also strongly supported National. The electorates of Piako, Matamata, and Karapiro were entirely National-held during their time as electorates, the Hamilton electorate was held by National from 1943 until it was dissolved in 1969, and the Waipa electorate was held by National from 1954 until its dissolution in 1996.

Goosman, who had taken Waikato in 1938, also won the 1943 election, but successfully contested the 1946 election in the newly formed Piako electorate.^[15] Goosman was succeeded in Waikato by Geoffrey Sim in 1946.^[21] Sim held the electorate until it was abolished in 1963, when he contested Piako instead.^[22]

The Waikato electorate was re-established in 1969 following the Electoral Act of 1965, which led to substantial changes in the number, shape, and size of electorates across the country.^{[23][24][25][26][27]} These changes came into effect with the 1969 election.^[24] The first representative was National's Lance Adams-Schneider, who had previously represented the Hamilton electorate. Adams-Schneider retired from Parliament in 1981 and became Ambassador of New Zealand to the United States in the following year.^[22] Adams-Schneider was succeeded by National's Simon Upton, who won the 1981 election and started his long parliamentary career with one term in Waikato. Upton contested the Raglan in the 1984 election and was succeeded by National's Rob Storey in Waikato. Storey held the electorate until it was abolished again in the electorate changes that came with the introduction of Mixed-member proportional voting in 1996.

The Waikato electorate was re-established in 2006 for the 2008 election.^[28]

Lindsay Tisch, who had been the MP for Piako since 2002, won Waikato at the 2008 election.^[29] Tisch retained his seat in the 2011 election^[30] and the 2014 election, but he announced he would not stand for the 2017 general election.^[31] The seat was won by Tim van de Molen, retaining it for the National Party, who won it again in 2020.

The most recent boundary changes to Waikato occurred in 2020, when more area was added in its north and its south, as well as areas just outside Hamilton and Cambridge.^[2]

Three of the five National Party members of parliament for Waikato were cabinet ministers.^{[citation needed]}

Key

  Independent   Conservative   Liberal   Reform   United   Labour   National

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

2023 general election: Waikato[32]
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	%	±%
	National	Y Tim van de Molen		27,445	64.43	+12.46	21,749	50.17	+12.45
	Labour	Jamie Toko		8,897	20.88	–18.10	7,612	17.56	–21.92
	NZ First	Stu Husband		3,587	8.42	–	3,319	7.65	+4.94
	Opportunities	Megan Owen		1,548	3.63	–	742	1.71	+0.45
	Vision NZ	Lois Dornan		420	0.98	–
	ACT						5,249	12.11	+1.59
	Green						2,376	5.48	+1.96
	NZ Loyal						721	1.66	–
	Te Pāti Māori						415	0.95	+0.60
	NewZeal						238	0.54	+0.33
	Legalise Cannabis						190	0.43	+0.01
	Freedoms NZ						142	0.32	–
	New Conservatives						102	0.23	–2.32
	DemocracyNZ						86	0.19	–
	Animal Justice						77	0.17	–
	Women's Rights						36	0.08	–
	Leighton Baker Party						28	0.06	–
	New Nation						19	0.04	–
Informal votes				694			196
Total valid votes				42,591			43,342
	National hold		Majority	18,548	43.54	+30.85

2020 general election: Waikato[33]
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	%	±%
	National	Y Tim van de Molen		20,877	51.97	−10.21	15,562	37.72	−20.97
	Labour	Kerrin Leoni		15,661	38.98	+15.92	16,288	39.48	+15.30
	ACT	James McDowall		2,084	5.19	—	4,340	10.52	+9.88
	New Conservative	Caleb Ansell		1,551	3.86	—	1,053	2.55	+2.25
	Green						1,454	3.52	+0.47
	NZ First						1,117	2.71	−7.39
	Opportunities						518	1.26	−0.60
	Advance NZ						373	0.90	—
	Legalise Cannabis						173	0.42	+0.07
	Māori Party						145	0.35	-0.08
	ONE						87	0.21	—
	Vision NZ						46	0.11	—
	Outdoors						30	0.07	−0.01
	Sustainable NZ						20	0.05	—
	Social Credit						19	0.05	+0.01
	Heartland						16	0.04	—
	TEA						13	0.03	—
Informal votes				933			263
Total valid votes				41,106			41,517
	National hold		Majority	5,216	12.69	−25.90

2014 general election: Waikato[35]
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	%	±%
	National	Y Lindsay Tisch		22,911	64.89	-0.01	21,598	59.99	+0.01
	Labour	Christine Greer		6,742	19.09	+0.69	5,303	14.73	-1.71
	NZ First	Barbara Stewart		3,330	9.43	+4.28	3,870	10.75	+2.65
	Conservative	Brian Dobbs		1,442	4.08	+0.34	2,053	5.70	+1.62
	ACT	Mike Burrow		290	0.82	-0.91	191	0.53	-1.40
	Democrats	Katherine Ransom		172	0.49	+0.14	38	0.11	-0.02
	Green						2,075	5.76	-1.26
	Māori Party						196	0.54	-0.05
	Legalise Cannabis						180	0.50	-0.04
	Internet Mana						178	0.49	+0.20
	Ban 1080						89	0.25	+0.25
	United Future						78	0.22	-0.55
	Independent Coalition						10	0.03	+0.03
	Civilian						8	0.02	+0.02
	Focus						6	0.02	+0.02
Informal votes				421			127
Total valid votes				35,308			36,000
	National hold		Majority	16,169	45.79	-0.71

2011 general election: Waikato[30]
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	%	±%
	National	Y Lindsay Tisch		19,817	64.90	+1.47	18,875	59.98	+2.54
	Labour	Kate Sutton		5,619	18.40	-4.52	5,173	16.44	-6.13
	Green	Cameron Harper		1,970	6.45	+1.77	2,208	7.02	+3.08
	NZ First	Barbara Stewart		1,571	5.15	+0.88	2,549	8.10	+2.81
	Conservative	Brian Dobbs		1,142	3.74	+3.74	1,284	4.08	+4.08
	ACT	Robin Boom		307	1.01	-2.43	607	1.93	-4.54
	Democrats	John Pemberton		107	0.35	-0.03	41	0.13	+0.01
	United Future						243	0.77	-0.11
	Māori Party						186	0.59	-0.14
	Legalise Cannabis						170	0.54	+0.16
	Mana						91	0.29	+0.29
	Libertarianz						28	0.09	+0.04
	Alliance						12	0.04	-0.04
Informal votes				775			298
Total valid votes				30,533			31,467
	National hold		Majority	14,198	46.50	+5.99

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 42,084^[36]

2008 general election: Waikato[29]
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	%	±%
	National	Y Lindsay Tisch		20,122	63.44		18,532	57.45
	Labour	Jacinda Ardern		7,272	22.93		7,280	22.57
	Green	Wendy Harper		1,484	4.68		1,271	3.94
	NZ First	Barbara Stewart		1,353	4.27		1,708	5.29
	ACT	Mark Davies		1,089	3.43		2,088	6.47
	Kiwi	James Ross		278	0.88		171	0.53
	Democrats	John Pemberton		122	0.38		40	0.12
	United Future						285	0.88
	Māori Party						235	0.73
	Bill and Ben						195	0.60
	Progressive						188	0.58
	Legalise Cannabis						123	0.38
	Family Party						87	0.27
	Alliance						25	0.08
	Libertarianz						15	0.05
	Workers Party						8	0.02
	Pacific						4	0.01
	RAM						3	0.01
	RONZ						1	0.003
Informal votes				245			107
Total valid votes				31,720			32,259
	National win new seat		Majority	12,850	40.51

Table footnotes:

Table footnotes:

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
• Mansfield, F. W. (1909). The General Election, 1908. National Library. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
• Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

• Electorate map from Elections NZ
• 1870 description of boundaries
• 1902 map
• 1911 map (page 29) and description of boundaries
• 1917 map (page 27) and description of boundaries
• 1937 map
• 1946 map