Clutha-Southland Explained

Clutha-Southland was a parliamentary constituency returning one member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The last MP for Clutha Southland was Hamish Walker of the National Party. He held the seat for one term, being elected at the 2017 general election and representing the electorate until the 2020 general election where he retired from Parliament, and the seat was replaced with the Southland electorate.

Population centres

Clutha-Southland was promulgated as one of the original 65 MMP electorates, centred on Southland district and covering an area stretching from Fiordland across the far south of the South Island to the south Otago coast. Its largest population centres were Gore and Balclutha. In 2008, the seat of Otago was abolished and split between the Waitaki and Clutha-Southland electorates, and parts of Central Otago, primarily around Arrowtown, Queenstown and Roxburgh were also transferred to Clutha-Southland.

Clutha-Southland was the successor to the old Wallace, Clutha and Awarua constituencies. Its boundaries had changed at all three redistributions undertaken since its creation, as dwindling populations in both the old Clutha-Southland electorate and in the neighbouring Invercargill electorate have forced both seats northwards to ensure every electorate population stays within certain limits. This trend stopped in the 2013 redistribution, however, with both the Clutha-Southland and Invercargill electorates remaining unchanged in area,[1] and then reversed in the 2020 redistribution, with the electorate gaining a large area around Alexandra from, but losing the Balclutha area to the new electorate and Tuatapere to Invercargill.[2] It was renamed as it no longer included the Clutha area.

History

Because of its largely rural nature, Clutha-Southland was one of the National Party's safest seats. Bill English, who is the former Prime Minister, held the seat from 1996 to 2014. English announced in January 2014 that he would retire as the electorate MP at the 2014 general election, becoming a list MP only.[3] [4]

Todd Barclay won the by a significant margin over Labour's Liz Craig,[5] obtaining nearly 64% of the candidate votes.[6] Barclay became at that time the youngest MP in the House of Representatives.[7] In 2017, he announced he would not stand for re-election at the 2017 election, after revealing he had secretly recorded staff in his office without their consent.[8] The seat was won at the election by Hamish Walker, retaining it for the National Party.[9] Similarly, in 2020, Walker admitted leaking sensitive private patient details about COVID-19 patients,[10] [11] [12] and subsequently announced that he would not stand for re-election during the 2020 New Zealand general election.[13]

In April 2020, the Electoral Commission announced that Clutha-Southland would have its borders substantially changed and that it would be renamed to the Southland electorate. As part of the changes, the Alexandra and the Clyde area would be transferred from Waitaki to Southland while South Otago was transferred to the newly created Taieri electorate. The Invercargill electorate also expanded into western Southland.[14] [15]

Members of Parliament for Clutha-Southland

The electorate has been represented by three members of parliament so far.

Key

width=100Electionwidth=190 colspan=2Winner
Bill English
bgcolor=Todd Barclay
bgcolor=Hamish Walker
(Electorate abolished in 2020; see)

List MPs

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

width=100Electionwidth=175 colspan=2Winner
2005width=5 bgcolor=Lesley Soper
width=5 bgcolor=Mark Patterson

Election results

2011 election

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,395[16]

2002 election

1996 election

References

-45.6333°N 167.9167°W

Notes and References

  1. Book: Report of the Representation Commission 2014 . 978-0-477-10414-2 . Representation Commission . 26 September 2014 . 10 . 4 April 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141006075102/http://www.elections.org.nz/sites/default/files/bulk-upload/documents/report_of_the_representation_commission_2014.pdf . 6 October 2014 . dead .
  2. Web site: Report of the Representation Commission 2020 . 17 April 2020.
  3. News: Bennett . Adam . English to give up Clutha-Southland seat . 3 November 2013 . . 1 November 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20181013053856/https://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/english-give-clutha-southland-seat. 13 October 2018.
  4. News: Life after Bill . 23 February 2014 . . 10 January 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20190421040636/http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/features/9578936/Life-after-Bill. 21 April 2019.
  5. News: Election 2014: Southland decides . 26 September 2014 . . 20 September 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20171119235452/http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/10524729/Election-2014-Southland-decides. 19 November 2017.
  6. News: Hayes . Lauren . Railton . Bridget . Jamieson . Debbie . Landslide win for Barclay . 26 September 2014 . . 20 September 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20170104154454/http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/10524729/Election-2014-Southland-decides. 4 January 2017.
  7. News: Who is National's Todd Barclay? . . 29 April 2014 . 21 September 2014 . Hamish . Rutherford.
  8. News: Todd Barclay tapes contained 'sex and drugs' matters – report. 27 September 2017. 27 June 2017. Newshub. https://web.archive.org/web/20190630104240/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/todd-barclay-tapes-contained-sex-and-drugs-matters-report.html. 30 June 2019.
  9. Web site: Clutha-Southland – Official Result . . 4 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20200116143422/https://electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2017/electorate-details-06.html. 16 January 2020.
  10. News: Houlahan . Mike . Walker's future in doubt . 8 July 2020 . . 8 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200708023353/https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/walker%E2%80%99s-future-doubt. 8 July 2020.
  11. News: Cooke. Henry. National MP Hamish Walker admits passing on leaked Covid-19 patient info from former party president Michelle Boag. 7 July 2020 . . 7 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200707100516/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300051710/national-mp-hamish-walker-admits-passing-on-leaked-covid19-patient-info-from-former-party-president-michelle-boag. 7 July 2020.
  12. News: Cheng . Derek . National MP Hamish Walker, former party president Michelle Boag admit leaking Covid patients' details . 7 July 2020 . . 7 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200707224059/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12346280. 7 July 2020.
  13. News: Covid-19 privacy leak: MP Hamish Walker announces he won't stand for re-election . 8 July 2020 . . 8 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200708003402/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/420754/covid-19-privacy-leak-mp-hamish-walker-announces-he-won-t-stand-for-re-election. 8 July 2020.
  14. News: Whyte . Anna . New electorate revealed, as raft of boundary changes announced prior to election 2020 . 3 July 2020 . . 17 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417220424/https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-electorate-revealed-raft-boundary-changes-announced-prior-election-2020 . 17 April 2020.
  15. Web site: Boundary Review 2019/20 Elections. 2020-07-08. elections.nz.
  16. Web site: Enrolment statistics . Electoral Commission . 26 November 2011 . 28 November 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111110032655/http://www.elections.org.nz/ages/ . 10 November 2011 . dead .

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