Southland
Single-member constituency
for the New Zealand House of Representatives
RegionOtago and Southland
Area31,313.05 km2 (12,090.04 sq mi)
Current constituency
Created2020
Current MPJoseph Mooney
PartyNational

Southland is an electorate to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was first created for the 2020 New Zealand general election and has since then been held by Joseph Mooney of the National Party.

Population centres

Despite its name, the electorate straddles the border between the Southland and Otago regions. It is the second-largest general electorate in New Zealand, behind West Coast-Tasman, and is predominantly rural in nature. The electorate includes Gore, Winton, Mataura, Alexandra, Arrowtown, Queenstown and Te Anau (among others), and much of Fiordland National Park.[1]

History

The Southland electorate emerged at the 2020 redistribution after the Clutha region moved out of the former electorate of Clutha-Southland. It comprised the bulk of Clutha-Southland, plus another area around Alexandra that had been moved in from Waitaki. The Representation Commission initially proposed to move Winton and The Catlins into Invercargill, but after a public consultation process these areas remained in Southland, which instead shed a large area in West Southland around Tuatapere.[2][3]

The incumbent from the Clutha-Southland electorate, Hamish Walker, announced in July 2020 that he would not contest the Southland electorate.[4] Later that month, the National Party selected Joseph Mooney as their candidate for this safe National seat.[5] Mooney was elected by a margin of 5,645 votes over Labour Party candidate Jon Mitchell.[6]

Members of Parliament

Key   National

Election Winner
2020 election Joseph Mooney
2023 election

List MPs

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

Election Winner
2023 election Todd Stephenson

Election results

2020 election

2020 general election: Southland[6]
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 Green tickY or Red XN denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Party votes % ±%
National Joseph Mooney 19,975 51.60 — 14,244 36.07 —
Labour Jon Mitchell 14,330 36.98 — 15,341 38.85 —
Green David Kennedy 2,127 5.49 — 2085 5.14 —
Opportunities Joel Rowlands 880 2.27 — 616 1.56 —
New Conservative Fiona Meyer 664 1.71 — 588 1.49 —
Advance NZ Robert Wilson 508 1.31 — 373 0.94 —
Social Credit Elisabeth Dacker 139 0.36 — 39 0.1 —
ONE Judith Terrill 130 0.34 — 78 0.2 —
ACT   5,016 12.70 —
NZ First   794 2.01 —
Legalise Cannabis   151 0.38 —
Māori Party   60 0.15 —
Outdoors   56 0.14 —
Sustainable NZ   25 0.06 —
Heartland   8 0.02 —
Vision NZ   7 0.02 —
TEA   6 0.02 —
Informal votes 679 164
Total Valid votes 39,432 39,651
Turnout 39,651 86.5 —
National win new seat Majority 5,645 14.62

References

  1. ^ "Map of electorates for the 2020 and 2023 electorates". 17 April 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Report of the Representation Commission 2020" (PDF). 17 April 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  3. ^ Kelly, Rachael (20 November 2019). "Changes to Clutha-Southland, Invercargill electorates under proposed boundary changes". Southland Times. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Covid-19 privacy leak: MP Hamish Walker announces he won't stand for re-election". Radio New Zealand. 8 July 2020. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  5. ^ McKenzie-McLean, Jo (31 July 2020). "Queenstown lawyer Joseph Mooney selected to replace Hamish Walker as Southland electorate candidate". Stuff. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Southland – Official Result (2020)". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
Categories