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Dunedin South is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It first existed from 1881 to 1890, and subsequently from 1905 to 1946. In 1996, the electorate was re-established for the introduction of MMP, before being abolished in 2020.

Population centres

The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the House of Representatives increased the number of European representatives to 91 (up from 84 since the 1875–76 election). The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Dunedin South, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.

As the name suggests, the electorate was based on the southern suburbs of Dunedin. It stretched out westwards to take in towns on the Taieri Plains such as Mosgiel, Green Island and Fairfield. The Otago Peninsula was also in the electorate.

The most recent Dunedin South electorate was created in 1996 as one of the original 65 MMP electorates, as a merger between St Kilda and a large part of Dunedin West. Until the 2008 election, it was enlarged at every electoral boundary review, but in the 2013 review, its boundaries were kept. Middlemarch was first included in the electorate for the 2008 election; other localities include:

• Southern Dunedin (48,000)
• Mosgiel (13,000)
• Outram (642)

The electorate was abolished at the 2019/20 electoral redistribution, with the majority of the electorate being included in a recreated Taieri, although the Otago Peninsula was incorporated into the Dunedin electorate.

History

The electorate was first established for the 1881 election and abolished after three parliamentary terms in 1890, when several Dunedin electorates were amalgamated to form the City of Dunedin electorate. During the nine years of its first existence, the electorate was represented by two MPs, Henry Fish (1881–1884 and 1887–1890) and James Gore (1884–1887).

Dunedin South was re-established after the abolition of the City of Dunedin electorate for the 1905 election. The first representative was James Arnold, who was an independent liberal and who served until the end of the parliamentary term in 1908, when he successfully contested Dunedin Central.

Thomas Sidey of the Liberal Party who had since a Caversham by election represented Caversham won the 1908 election for Dunedin South. He represented the electorate for six parliamentary terms until 1928. In 1919, Tom Paul nearly won the seat for Labour, losing by only 84 votes.

Sidey was succeeded by William Taverner of the United Party in the 1928 election. At the next election in 1931, the electorate was won by Fred Jones of the Labour Party. Jones held the electorate until 1946, when it was abolished, and successfully stood in St Kilda that year.

The electorate was re-established for the 1996 election and won by Michael Cullen, who later became Finance minister. Cullen had previously represented St Kilda (1981–1996). At the next election in 1999, Cullen stood as a list candidate only and was succeeded by David Benson-Pope as the electorate MP. After three parliamentary terms, Benson-Pope was not selected by the Labour Party as their candidate, but Clare Curran was chosen instead. Curran has represented the electorate since the 2008 election.

The city of Dunedin is a New Zealand Labour Party stronghold; The last National MP elected from a Dunedin constituency was Richard Walls in 1975. However, in 2011, National Party candidate, Jo Hayes, reduced the incumbent, Clare Curran's majority from 6449 in 2008 to 4175, and National gained a plurality of the party vote in Dunedin South by 1837 votes. The winning of the party vote was unprecedented in Dunedin South, which was seen, pre 2011, as a Labour Party stronghold. However the predecessor seat of St Kilda was represented by Jim Barnes of the National Party between 1951 and 1957. In the 2014 election, Curran was successful against National's Hamish Walker.

In mid April 2020, it was announced that Dunedin South would be reconstituted as the Taieri electorate. The Otago peninsula was transferred to the Dunedin electorate while the new Taieri electorate would include South Dunedin and South Otago, with the latter being transferred from the former Clutha-Southland electorate.

Members of Parliament

Key   Independent   Liberal–Labour   Liberal   United   Labour   National

List MPs

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

Hayes was elected from the party list in January 2014 following the resignation of Katrina Shanks.

Election results

2017 election

2017 general election: Dunedin South
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 Clare Curran		21,404	54.11	+5.55	19,183	48.13	+15.00
	National	Matt Gregory		12,687	32.08	−6.18	14,164	35.53	−4.17
	Green	Shane Gallagher		2,002	5.06	−2.45	2,362	5.92	−6.32
	NZ First	Kerry Maria Rushton		1,591	4.02	—	2,625	6.58	−2.49
	Opportunities	Lindsay Smith		1,067	2.70	—	967	2.42	—
	Legalise Cannabis	Adrian McDermott		332	1.59	—	90	0.23	−0.22
	ACT	Daniel Doughty		128	0.32	—	116	0.29	−0.04
	Māori Party						83	0.21	−0.04
	Conservative						54	0.14	−2.78
	Ban 1080						39	0.10	−0.10
	United Future						26	0.07	−0.10
	Outdoors						20	0.05	—
	People's Party						20	0.05	—
	Mana Party						6	0.02	—
	Internet						5	0.01	—
	Democrats						4	0.01	−0.20
Informal votes				343			103
Total valid votes				39,554			39,867
	Labour hold		Majority	8,717	22.03	+11.73

2014 election

2014 general election: Dunedin South
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 Clare Curran		18,182	48.56	−0.33	12,518	33.13	−1.84
	National	Hamish Walker		14,324	38.26	+1.49	15,003	39.70	−0.48
	Green	Shane Gallagher		2,813	7.51	−1.77	4,626	12.24	−1.37
	Conservative	Cindy Kerr		727	1.94	+1.94	1,104	2.92	+1.44
	Legalise Cannabis	Julian Crawford		453	1.21	+1.21	171	0.45	±0.00
	Democrats	Warren Voight		234	0.62	−0.07	80	0.21	−0.15
	Internet	Andrew Lepine		177	0.47	+0.47
	ACT	Colin Nicholls		143	0.38	−0.24	125	0.33	−0.27
	NZ First						3,429	9.07	+1.92
	Internet Mana						307	0.81	+0.63
	Māori Party						95	0.25	−0.05
	Ban 1080						77	0.20	+0.20
	United Future						63	0.17	−0.36
	Civilian						18	0.05	+0.05
	Focus						7	0.02	+0.02
	Independent Coalition						5	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				389			161
Total valid votes				37,442			37,789
Turnout				37,831	81.60	+4.60
	Labour hold		Majority	3,858	10.30	−1.82

2011 election

2011 general election: Dunedin South
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 Clare Curran		16,844	48.89	-3.40	12,326	34.97	-11.76
	National	Jo Hayes		12,669	36.77	+2.05	14,163	40.18	+5.97
	Green	Shane Gallagher		3,197	9.28	+2.44	4,798	13.61	+5.64
	NZ First	Randall Ratana		979	2.84	+2.84	2,522	7.15	+2.59
	Democrats	Warren Voight		238	0.69	+0.22	126	0.36	+0.18
	ACT	Kimberly Hannah		215	0.62	-0.81	210	0.60	-1.51
	Restore All Things in Christ	Robert Wansink		167	0.48	+0.18
	Alliance	Kay Murray		142	0.41	-0.13	58	0.16	-0.03
	Conservative						520	1.48	+1.48
	United Future						186	0.53	-0.21
	Legalise Cannabis						157	0.45	+0.06
	Māori Party						107	0.30	-0.13
	Mana						62	0.18	+0.18
	Libertarianz						16	0.05	+0.01
Informal votes				830			318
Total valid votes				34,451			35,569
	Labour hold		Majority	4,175	12.12	-5.45

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 45,818

2008 election

2005 election

2005 general election: Dunedin South
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 David Benson-Pope		20,033	57.00		20,348	57.13
	National	Conway Powell		9,393	26.73		9,692	27.21
	Green	Peter Thomlinson		2,200	6.26		1,926	5.41
	NZ First	Alan Heward		1,145	3.26		1,563	4.39
	United Future	Pauline Moffat		795	2.26		879	2.47
	Progressive	Martin Vaughan		672	1.91		500	1.40
	Destiny	Brent Daglish		400	1.14		128	0.36
	ACT	Alan Wilden		228	0.65		266	0.75
	Alliance	Chris Ford		189	0.54		52	0.15
	Restore All Things in Christ	Robert Wansink		91	0.26
	Legalise Cannabis						90	0.25
	Māori Party						77	0.22
	Christian Heritage						35	0.10
	Democrats						30	0.08
	Direct Democracy						8	0.12
	Libertarianz						8	0.02
	One NZ						6	0.02
	99 MP						4	0.01
	Family Rights						4	0.01
	RONZ						3	0.01
Informal votes				398			127
Total valid votes				35,146			35,619
	Labour hold		Majority	10,640	30.30

2002 election

2002 general election: Dunedin South
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 David Benson-Pope		20,398	63.31	+12.41	18,311	55.89	+5.37
	National	Paul Foster-Bell		5,674	17.61		5,004	15.27	-7.50
	Green	Fliss Butcher		2,023	6.28		2,036	6.21	+2.19
	United Future	Jesse O'Brien		1,338	4.15		1,923	5.87
	ACT	Matthew Cain Dwyer		859	2.67		1,144	3.49	+0.06
	Progressive	Russell Edwards		750	2.33		765	2.23
	Alliance	Justin Wilson		601	1.87		564	1.72	-9.98
	Christian Heritage	Graham Bruce Aldridge		576	1.79		356	1.09	-0.87
	NZ First						2,016	6.15	+4.03
	ORNZ						415	1.27
	Legalise Cannabis						213	0.65	-0.34
	One NZ						9	0.03
	Mana Māori						8	0.02	0.00
	NMP						1	0.00	-0.02
Informal votes				521			97
Total valid votes				32,219			32,765
	Labour hold		Majority	14,724	45.70	+15.81

1999 election

1996 election

1943 election

1938 election

1935 election

1931 election

Table footnotes:

1. William Taverner was the official candidate for the United–Reform Coalition

1928 election

Table footnotes

1. 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. McRobie 1989, pp. 43–48.
2. Report of the Representation Commission 2014 (PDF). Representation Commission. 4 April 2014. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
3. ^ Scholefield 1950, pp. 156–157.
4. Scholefield 1950, p. 106.
5. Scholefield 1950, p. 109.
6. Scholefield 1950, p. 93.
7. Scholefield 1950, p. 139.
8. Scholefield 1950, p. 142.
9. Scholefield 1950, p. 117.
10. ^ "Official Count Results – Dunedin South". Chief Electoral Office. 22 November 2008. Archived from the original on 13 January 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
11. ^ "Official Count Results – Dunedin South". Electoral Commission. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
12. Eunson, Keith. "Barnes, James George". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
13. "Agony and ecstasy for Dunedin party faithful". Otago Daily Times. 20 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
14. Whyte, Anna (17 April 2020). "New electorate revealed, as raft of boundary changes announced prior to election 2020". 1News. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
15. "Official Count Results – Dunedin South (2017)". Electoral Commission. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
16. Electoral Commission (22 January 2016). "Official Count Results – Dunedin South". Retrieved 22 January 2016.
17. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
18. "Official Count Results – Dunedin South". Electoral Commission. 1 October 2005. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
19. "Official Count Results (1999) – Electoral Votes for registered parties by electorate". NZ Electoral Commission. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
20. "Official Count Results (1999) – Candidate Vote Details". NZ Electoral Commission. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
21. "Electorate Candidate and Party Votes Recorded at Each Polling Place – Dunedin South, 1996" (PDF). Retrieved 12 July 2013.
22. "Part III – Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
23. "Part III – Party Lists of unsuccessful Registered Parties" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
24. "The General Election, 1943". National Library. 1944. p. 11. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
25. "The General Election, 1938". National Library. 1939. pp. 1–6. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
26. The General Election, 1935. National Library. 1936. pp. 1–35. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
27. The General Election, 1931. Government Printer. 1932. p. 2. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
28. "Prospects in Otago". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. LXVIII, no. 21037. 23 November 1931. p. 11. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
29. The General Election, 1928. Government Printer. 1929. p. 2. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
30. "The election : nomination day". Evening Star. No. 20009. 29 October 1928. p. 7. Retrieved 17 February 2020.

References

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
• Scholefield, Guy (1950) . New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) . New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library

• Historical electorates of New Zealand
• Politics of Dunedin
• 1881 establishments in New Zealand
• 1905 establishments in New Zealand
• 1996 establishments in New Zealand
• 1890 disestablishments in New Zealand
• 1946 disestablishments in New Zealand