East Coast (New Zealand electorate)

East Coast is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The electorate first existed from 1871 to 1893, and was recreated in 1999. The current MP for East Coast is Dana Kirkpatrick of the National Party, who has held office since 2023.

East Coast
Single-member constituency for the New Zealand House of Representatives
Location of East Coast within Bay of Plenty and Gisborne
Region	Bay of Plenty and Gisborne
Major settlements	Gisborne, Whakatāne
Area	13,813.82 km2 (5,333.55 sq mi)
Current constituency
Current MP	Dana Kirkpatrick
Party	National

Population centres

The electorate's main centres are Gisborne (32,529) and Tolaga Bay in the Gisborne Region; and Ōpōtiki and Whakatane (18,800) in the eastern part of the Bay of Plenty Region. Wairoa, the northernmost town in the Hawke's Bay region, was excluded by the 2007 boundary changes.^[1][2]

History

The East Coast electorate was first established for the 5th Parliament in 1871.^[3] William Kelly was the first elected representative; he held the seat until the end of the term in 1875.^[4]

The "most sensational electoral contest ever held in the East Coast" electorate was held in January 1876, when mysterious pieces of cardboard were distributed by supporters of George Read in Gisborne, which hotel bars accepted as legal tender. Read, George Morris and Kelly received 215, 206 and 185 votes, with another candidate coming a distant fourth. Morris petitioned against Read's election. A parliamentary committee of enquiry determined that Read had not broken any laws by approving the initiative, but the House of Representatives resolved that Read was to be unseated in favour of Morris, which happened later in 1876.^[5][6] This was the last election enquiry held by a parliamentary committee. Subsequently, these enquiries were held by the courts.^[7]

At the next election in 1879, Morris was defeated by Allan McDonald, who held the electorate until he resigned in 1884.^[8]

Samuel Locke won the resulting by-election and was confirmed a few months later at the 1884 general election. He served until the end of the term of the 9th Parliament in 1887.^[9]

William Lee Rees stood unsuccessfully in this and subsequent by-elections and elections.

Andrew Graham won the 1887 general election. He resigned in 1889 before the end of the term.^[10] Alexander Creighton Arthur won the resulting 1889 by-election. Arthur and Kelly (the electorate's first representative in 1871) contested the 1890 general election, and Kelly was successful by a small margin, with 1022 to 1008 votes in his favour.^[11] He served until the end of the term in 1893,^[4] after which the electorate was abolished, and was replaced by the Bay of Plenty and Waiapu electorates.

Members of Parliament

From 1871 to 1893, the electorate was represented by seven Members of Parliament. When the electorate was abolished the then current MP, William Kelly contested and won the new seat of Bay of Plenty. In 1999, the electorate was recreated from most of the Mahia, and part of the Bay of Plenty electorates. Since 1999 it has been represented by two MPs.

Key

  Independent   Liberal   Labour   National   United Future   Green

Election	Winner
1871 election		William Kelly
1876 election		George Read
		George Morris1
1879 election		Allan McDonald
1881 election
1884 by-election		Samuel Locke
1884 election
1887 election		Andrew Graham
1889 by-election		Alexander Creighton Arthur
1890 election		William Kelly
electorate abolished, 1893–1999
1999 election		Janet Mackey
2002 election
2005 election		Anne Tolley
2008 election
2011 election
2014 election
2017 election
2020 election		Kiri Allan
2023 election		Dana Kirkpatrick

¹ See History section above.

List MPs

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

Election	List Member
2002 election		Judy Turner
2005 election		Moana Mackey
		Judy Turner
2008 election		Catherine Delahunty
		Moana Mackey
2011 election		Moana Mackey
2017 election		Kiri Allan
		Gareth Hughes

Election results

2023 election

2023 general election: East Coast[12]
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	Dana Kirkpatrick		17,007	42.57	+6.15	14,908	36.70	+9.74
	Labour	Tāmati Coffey		13,808	34.56	−17.14	12,054	29.68	−20.72
	NZ First	Craig Sinclair		2,571	6.44	–	3,896	9.59	+6.15
	ACT	Michael Howe		1,923	4.81	+1.56	3,599	8.86	+1.08
	Green	Jordan Walker		1,765	4.42	-0.63	3,015	7.42	+1.89
	Te Pāti Māori	Fallyn Flavell		1,235	3.09	–	915	2.25	+1.50
	DemocracyNZ	Chris Robinson		625	1.56	–	199	0.49	–
	Vision New Zealand	Leighton Packer		323	0.81	—
	Independent	Don Richards		104	0.26	—
	Independent	Monaco Caracas		68	0.17	—
	Independent	Gordon Dickson		66	0.17	—
	NZ Loyal						546	1.34	—
	Opportunities						460	1.13	+0.22
	NewZeal						247	0.61	+0.10 [a]
	Freedoms NZ						178	0.44	—
	Vision NZ						109	0.26	±0.00
	Legalise Cannabis						164	0.40	-0.03
	New Conservatives						56	0.14	-0.95
	Animal Justice						43	0.11	–
	Leighton Baker Party						29	0.07	–
	Women's Rights						25	0.06	–
	New Nation						20	0.05	–
Informal votes				509			264
Total valid votes				39,950			40,618
	National gain from Labour		Majority	3,199	8.01	-7.27

2020 election

2020 general election: East Coast[13]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Kiri Allan		21,420	51.70	+18.19	21,412	50.40	+13.78
	National	Tania Tapsell		15,089	36.42	−9.76	11,452	26.96	−17.07
	Green	Meredith Akuhata-Brown		2,091	5.05	−2.08	2,351	5.53	+0.95
	ACT	Blake Webb		1,345	3.25	–	3,305	7.78	+7.51
	Advance NZ	Jennie Brown		832	2.01	–	734	1.73	–
	New Conservative	Helena Nickerson		380	0.92	–	463	1.09	+0.92
	ONE	Veronica King		274	0.66	–	217	0.51	–
	NZ First						1,462	3.44	−6.45
	Opportunities						387	0.91	−1.43
	Māori Party						320	0.75	±0.00
	Legalise Cannabis						183	0.43	+0.11
	Vision NZ						109	0.26	–
	Outdoors						55	0.13	+0.03
	Social Credit						13	0.03	+0.02
	Sustainable NZ						9	0.02	–
	TEA						6	0.01	–
	Heartland						5	0.01	–
Informal votes				838			288
Total valid votes				41,431			42,483
Turnout				42,771	81.53	+2.11
	Labour gain from National		Majority	6,331	15.28	+2.61

2017 election

2017 general election: East Coast[14]
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 Anne Tolley		17,517	46.18	−5.74	17,011	44.03	-4.39
	Labour	Kiri Allan		12,710	33.51	+4.38	14,150	36.62	+13.98
	NZ First	Julian Tilley		2,916	7.69	+0.55	3,820	9.89	−1.90
	Green	Gareth Hughes		2,705	7.13	−0.57	1,770	4.58	−4.59
	Opportunities	Lesley Immink		1,142	3.01	—	905	2.34	—
	Māori Party	Rihi Vercoe		468	1.23	—	290	0.75	−0.19
	Independent	Tekawe Terence Ratu		52	0.14	—
	Legalise Cannabis						124	0.32	−0.10
	ACT						106	0.27	+0.04
	Ban 1080						89	0.23	−0.11
	Conservative						67	0.17	−3.89
	Outdoors						37	0.10	—
	United Future						32	0.08	−0.14
	Mana Party						20	0.05	—
	People's Party						15	0.04	—
	Internet						7	0.02	—
	Democrats						4	0.01	−0.07
Informal votes				422			188
Total valid votes				37,932			38,636
	National hold		Majority	4,807	12.67	−10.12

2014 election

2014 general election: East Coast[15]
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 Anne Tolley		18,074	51.92	+3.65	17,152	48.42	−1.35
	Labour	Moana Mackey		10,140	29.13	−2.69	8,022	22.64	−1.23
	Green	Gavin Maclean		2,679	7.70	−0.75	3,248	9.17	−1.43
	NZ First	Mere Takoko		2,485	7.14	+3.06	4,176	11.79	+3.26
	Conservative	Rick Drayson		784	2.25	−2.41	1,438	4.06	+1.04
	Internet	Patrick Salmon		259	0.74	+0.74
	Democrats	Harry Alchin Smith		86	0.25	+0.25	30	0.08	+0.05
	Internet Mana						413	1.17	+0.42[b]
	Māori Party						334	0.94	−0.11
	Legalise Cannabis						150	0.42	−0.03
	Ban 1080						122	0.34	+0.34
	ACT						82	0.23	−0.71
	United Future						78	0.22	−0.69
	Independent Coalition						17	0.05	+0.05
	Civilian						13	0.04	+0.04
	Focus						4	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				305			148
Total valid votes				34,812			35,427
Turnout				35,575	76.69	+2.16
	National hold		Majority	7,934	22.79	+6.33

2011 election

2011 general election: East Coast[16]
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 Anne Tolley		14,003	48.27	-4.18	14,804	49.77	+2.15
	Labour	Moana Mackey		9,229	31.82	-0.21	7,101	23.87	-7.78
	Green	Darryl Monteith		2,452	8.45	+3.09	3,154	10.60	+4.24
	Conservative	Kathy Sheldrake		1,352	4.66	+4.66	898	3.02	+3.02
	NZ First	Tamati Reid		1,184	4.08	-2.76	2,538	8.53	+2.68
	United Future	Martin Gibson		392	1.35	-1.96	271	0.91	-1.28
	Mana	Val Irwin		256	0.88	+0.88	224	0.75	+0.75
	ACT	John Norvill		140	0.48	+0.48	280	0.94	-1.62
	Legalise Cannabis						133	0.45	+0.14
	Māori Party						313	1.05	-0.38
	Alliance						10	0.03	-0.03
	Democrats						10	0.03	-0.004
	Libertarianz						9	0.03	-0.01
Informal votes				616			233
Total valid votes				29,008			29,976
	National hold		Majority	4,774	16.46	-3.98

Electorate (as at 21 October 2011): 40,533^[17]

2008 election

2008 general election: East Coast[18]
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 Anne Tolley		16,463	52.46	+7.65	15,160	47.63	+5.43
	Labour	Moana Mackey		10,050	32.02	-8.78	10,075	31.65	-7.34
	NZ First	Brendan Horan		2,147	6.84	+3.35	1,862	5.85	-0.92
	Green	Catherine Delahunty		1,684	5.37	+1.75	2,025	6.36	+2.11
	United Future	Judy Turner		1,040	3.31	-0.57	698	2.19	-0.76
	ACT						816	2.56	+1.87
	Māori Party						457	1.44	-0.16
	Progressive						199	0.63	-0.37
	Bill and Ben						175	0.55	–
	Kiwi						115	0.36	–
	Legalise Cannabis						99	0.31	+0.12
	Family Party						83	0.26	–
	Alliance						19	0.06	+0.00
	Libertarianz						13	0.04	+0.02
	Democrats						12	0.04	-0.03
	Workers Party						10	0.03	–
	Pacific						7	0.02	–
	RONZ						5	0.02	+0.01
	RAM						2	0.01	–
Informal votes				246			130
Total valid votes				31,384			31,832
	National hold		Majority	6,413	20.43	+16.44

2005 election

2005 general election: East Coast[19]
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	Anne Tolley		13,666	44.80	+12.17	13,070	42.20	+20.43
	Labour	Moana Mackey		12,447	40.81	-10.83	12,076	38.99	-1.68
	United Future	Judy Turner		1,186	3.89	-1.70	916	2.96	-3.51
	Green	Catherine Delahunty		1,104	3.62	-1.35	1,316	4.25	-1.45
	NZ First	Joe Glen		1,064	3.49	—	2,098	6.77	-7.11
	Māori Party	John Harré		589	1.93	—	494	1.59	—
	ACT	Bill Sadler		446	1.46	-0.57	214	0.69	-4.17
	Destiny						336	1.08	—
	Progressive						309	1.00	-0.68
	Legalise Cannabis						60	0.19	-0.32
	Christian Heritage						20	0.06	-1.01
	Democrats						20	0.06	—
	Alliance						17	0.05	-1.12
	Family Rights						8	0.03	—
	Libertarianz						6	0.02	—
	99 MP						5	0.02	—
	One NZ						3	0.01	—
	Direct Democracy						2	0.01	—
	RONZ						2	0.01	—
Informal votes				266			125
Total valid votes				30,502			30,972
Turnout				31,097
	National gain from Labour		Majority	1,219	3.99	-15.02

2002 election

2002 general election: East Coast
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Janet Mackey		14,519	51.64	+1.91	11,687	40.67	+2.79
	National	Leanne Jensen-Daines		9,176	32.63		6,255	21.77	-9.77
	United Future	Judy Turner		1,573	5.59		1,859	6.47
	Green	Catherine Delahunty		1,398	4.97		1,638	5.70	+1.44
	ACT	Ian Swan		571	2.03	-0.21	1,396	4.86	-1.68
	Alliance	Gavin MacLean		388	1.38	-5.21	336	1.17	-7.92
	Christian Heritage	Tania Maria Maukau-Teare-Shelford		269	0.96		308	1.07	-1.40
	One NZ	David Moat		224	0.80		83	0.29
	NZ First						3,989	13.88	+8.88
	ORNZ						521	1.81
	Progressive						484	1.68
	Legalise Cannabis						147	0.51	-0.42
	Mana Māori						29	0.10	-0.07
	NMP						3	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				541			122
Total valid votes				28,118			28,735
	Labour hold		Majority	5,343	19.01	+4.73

1999 election

1999 general election: East Coast[20][21]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Janet Mackey		13,391	49.73		10,348	37.91
	National	Matthew Parkinson		9,546	35.45		8,608	31.54
	Alliance	Gavin MacLean		1,775	6.59		2,481	9.09
	NZ First	Gray Eatwell		844	3.13		1,366	5.00
	Christian Heritage	Richard Rangihuna		645	2.40		675	2.47
	ACT	Ian Swan		604	2.24		1,784	6.54
	Mana Wahine	Harangi Manaena-Biddle		76	0.28
	Te Tawharau	Anton Kerekere		46	0.17
	Green						1,164	4.26
	Legalise Cannabis						253	0.93
	Christian Democrats						225	0.82
	Libertarianz						98	0.36
	United NZ						74	0.27
	Animals First						50	0.18
	Mana Māori						47	0.17
	McGillicuddy Serious						33	0.12
	Mauri Pacific						24	0.09
	Natural Law						23	0.08
	One NZ						23	0.08
	Republican						8	0.03
	Freedom Movement						7	0.03
	The People's Choice						3	0.01
	NMP						1	0.00
	South Island						1	0.00
Informal votes				642			273
Total valid votes				26,927			27,296
	Labour win new seat		Majority	3845	14.28

1890 election

1890 general election: East Coast^[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Kelly	1,022	50.34
	Conservative	Alexander Creighton Arthur	1,008	49.65
Majority			14	0.68
Turnout			2,030	68.65
Registered electors			2,957

1889 by-election

1889 East Coast by-election^[23]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Alexander Creighton Arthur	676	52.00
	Independent	William Lee Rees	624	48.00
Majority			52	4.00
Turnout			1300

1887 election

1887 general election: East Coast^[24][25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Andrew Graham	744	45.17
	Independent	Allan McDonald	583	35.40
	Independent	Michael Gannon[26]	320	19.43
Majority			161	9.78
Turnout			1647
Registered electors			2,271

1884 by-election

1884 East Coast by-election^[27][28]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Samuel Locke	509	45.49
	Independent	Michael Gannon[26]	315	28.15
	Independent	William Lee Rees	295	26.36
Turnout			1119
Majority			194	17.34

1881 election

1881 general election: East Coast^[29]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Allan McDonald	441	37.25
	Independent	Samuel Locke	422	35.64
	Independent	Captain Thomas William Porter	180	15.20
	Independent	Michael Gannon[26][30]	141	11.91
Majority			19	1.60
Turnout			1184
Registered electors			1,524

Table footnotes

1. Compared to ONE Party
2. 2014 Internet Mana swing is relative to the votes for Mana in 2011; it shared a party list with Internet in the 2014 election.

Notes

1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "Subnational population estimates tables – Statistics New Zealand". Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
3. Scholefield 1950, p. 157.
4. Scholefield 1925, p. 107.
5. Read, George; Philip Whyte. "East Coast". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
6. "East Coast Election Report". Daily Southern Cross. 23 August 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
7. Mackay 1949, p. 354.
8. Scholefield 1925, p. 111.
9. Scholefield 1925, p. 110.
10. Scholefield 1925, p. 96.
11. Mackay 1949, p. 355.
12. "East Coast – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
13. "East Coast – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
14. "Official Count Results – East Coast (2017)". Electoral Commission. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
15. Electoral Commission (10 October 2014). "Official Count Results – East Coast". Retrieved 28 January 2016.
16. East Coast results, 2011
17. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 21 October 2011. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
18. "Election result: East Coast, 2008". Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
19. "Official Count Results – East Coast (2005)". Electoral Commission. 1 October 2005. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
20. "Official Count Results (1999) – Electoral Votes for registered parties by electorate". NZ Electoral Commission. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
21. "Official Count Results (1999) – Candidate Vote Details". NZ Electoral Commission. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
22. "The General Election, 1890". National Library. 1891. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
23. "The East Coast Election". The Press. Vol. XLVI, no. 7425. 17 December 1889. p. 5.
24. "Tuesday, December 17, 1889". The Daily Telegraph. No. 5709. 17 December 1889. p. 2. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
25. Cooper, G. S. (1887). The General Election, 1887. National Library. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
26. Oliver, Steven. "Kate Wyllie". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
27. "Declaration of the Poll". Poverty Bay Herald. 23 June 1884.
28. "The East Coast Election". Hawke's Bay Herald. 20 June 1884.
29. Cooper, G. S. (1882). Votes Recorded for Each Candidate. Government Printer. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
30. "Telegraphic". Hawke's Bay Herald. Vol. XXI, no. 6097. 15 October 1881. p. 3. Retrieved 18 January 2019.

References

• Mackay, Joseph Angus (1949). Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z. Gisborne: Joseph Angus Mackay. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
• Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.
• Scholefield, Guy (1925) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record (2nd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.

External links

• Electorate Profile Archived 29 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine Parliamentary Library