Reasons for Proposed Boundaries

General Reasons:

Although growth in population and its redistribution throughout the country has influenced the electoral boundaries that this Commission proposes, the Commission has also given consideration to the other statutory criteria. Retention of existing boundaries is a necessary consideration. However, 30 of the 62 existing General electorates are outside the permissible range. This necessitates boundary changes. Of the other 32 General Electorates that are within the permitted range, most stand in the path of population movements required to balance those electorates that are out of the range, or else they must make way for the new North Island electorate.

It has therefore not been possible to retain existing electorate boundaries for the General Electorates except for 6 electorates. The Commission has been able to retain segments of many of the existing General electoral boundaries.

In the case of the Māori Electorates, the Commission was able to retain most of the electoral boundaries. Three of the 7 electorates were outside of the permitted range of population and required change. Three sections of boundary have changed. These changes affect 5 electorates. The other 2 remain unchanged.

The splitting of small communities has been avoided where possible. The Commission has endeavoured where possible to place communities in the same electorate as the adjoining area with which it has the most interaction. It is conscious that this has not been achieved in all instances because of the requirement to balance factors of quota limits and other statutory criteria constraints.

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