Report of the Representation Commission 2007
To His Excellency the Governor-General of New Zealand
YOUR EXCELLENCY
The Representation Commission, constituted and acting under the Electoral Act 1993 and its amendments (“the Act”), hereby reports to Your Excellency the names and boundaries of the General and Māori Electoral Districts fixed by the Commission. From the 25th day of September 2007, being the date of gazetting of the notice of these names and boundaries, general elections of members of Parliament will be based on the boundaries now reported to you, until these boundaries are changed by process of law.
The principal function of the
Commission is, in the words of s28 (1) of the Act, to make periodical
readjustment of the representation of the people of
INTRODUCTION
Members of the Commission
The members of the Commission, appointed pursuant to section 28(2) of the Act, are:
Ex Officio Members
Dr D Grant, Surveyor-General
Mr B Pink, Government Statistician
Mr R Peden, Chief Electoral Officer
Ms S M Piper, Chairperson of the Local Government Commission
Appointed Members
Hon D F Caygill, representing the Government
Hon R Sowry, representing the Opposition
Māori Members
For the purpose of determining the Māori Electoral Districts the Commission comprised also-
Mr L Comer, Chief Executive of Te Puni Kōkiri
Mrs W Wereta, representing the Government
Mr T J McEnteer, representing the Opposition
Delegation of Membership
Dr Grant delegated his membership of the Commission to Mr A Haanen on one occasion.
Hon David Caygill delegated his membership of the Commission to Mr Lloyd Falck on one occasion.
Mr Brian Pink resigned as Government Statistician on 2 March 2007 and Ms Cathryn Ashley-Jones deputy Government Statistician took over his membership of the Commission.
Mr Comer delegated his membership of the Commission to Ms Gail Campbell on one occasion.
Chairman
Judge B J Kendall was appointed by the Governor-General on the nomination of the other members of the Commission in terms of Section 28(2)(f) of the Act.
Meetings
The meetings of the Commission spread over the period from 11 December 2006 to 31 July 2007
In all, the Commission met on 19 days, as follows:
|
11 December 2006 |
General Business |
|
13 March 2007 |
Submissions by political parties, Surveyor-General‛s presentation |
|
26 March 2007 |
Commencement of boundaries deliberations |
|
27,28,29,30 March, 3,4,5, April |
Boundaries deliberations |
|
3 May |
Release of proposed boundaries |
|
17 July |
|
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18 July |
|
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19 July |
|
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20 July |
|
|
25 July |
Gisborne, hearing objections and counter-objections and deliberating on objections and counter objections |
|
26 July |
|
|
27,30,31 July |
Deliberating on objections and counter-objections |
The Māori Commissioners met, as a Committee, to consider and recommend the Proposed Māori Electoral Districts. They joined the Commission to hear objections and counter-objections relating to the Māori Electoral Districts, and to make decisions on the final Māori boundaries.
The Māori Commissioners met in committee on 3 days.
The Commission sought their advice and assistance in respect of the following matters:
- the alignment, where possible, of boundaries between Māori and General Electoral Districts.
- matters of procedure and protocol for the hearing of objections and counter objections relating to the proposed Māori Electoral Districts.
- the use of macrons for the spelling of electorates with Māori names
This report is published in both
of the official languages of
Submissions by Political Parties
The Commission identified the following political parties as falling within the provisions of Section 34 of the Act and thus entitled to make submissions to the Commission in relation to the matters to be considered under sections 35(3) and 45(6) of the Act. They were The Labour Party, The National Party, ACT New Zealand, New Zealand First, The Greens, United Future New Zealand, The Māori Party and Jim Anderton‛s Progressive party. Each was invited to lodge written submissions with the Commission and to make an oral presentation to the Commission on 13 March 2007. The National Party, the Labour Party, ACT New Zealand and the Māori Party tendered written submission, and spoke to their submissions in public on 13 March 2007.