Rodney

Rodney is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Rodney is Mark Mitchell of the National Party.^[1] He has held this position since 2011.

Rodney covers an area of the northern Auckland region from Warkworth in the north, south through the Hibiscus Coast to Auckland's northern urban fringe. High population growth in north and west Auckland has led to Rodney shrinking – Helensville and Kumeu were taken out in 1999, and the next major town to be removed was Wellsford after the 2006 census.

History

Rodney was first created for the 1871 election and was represented by four MPs from 1871 to 1890: Henry Farnall 1871-72 (resigned); John Sheehan 1872-79 (elected for Thames in 1879); Seymour Thorne George 1879-84 (retired); and William Pollock Moat 1884-90 (retired).

Its first recreation was from the 1946 election to 1978, and was recreated for a single term six years later for the 1984 election.

Rodney was again recreated ahead of the change to Mixed Member Proportional voting in 1996. Its original incarnation was coterminous with the district for which it is named – most of the old Albany seat minus its eponymous town, with a large section of Kaipara tacked onto the northern fringe. Both of these seats were held by National MPs - Lockwood Smith in Kaipara and then Deputy Prime Minister Don McKinnon in Albany. Smith won his party's nomination for what is a safe National seat and has not been seriously troubled for re-election since.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Independent     National    Green     NZ First  

List MPs

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

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Rodney[2]
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Mark Mitchell		20,253	53.54	-6.87	23,967	62.15	+3.16
	Conservative	Colin Craig		8,031	21.23	+21.23	2,459	6.38	+6.38
	Labour	Christine Rose		5,170	13.67	-5.13	5,178	13.43	-7.19
	Green	Teresa Moore		2,694	7.12	-0.57	3,265	8.47	+3.29
	NZ First	Tracey Martin		1,476	3.90	-0.35	2,688	6.97	+2.44
	ACT	Beth Houlbrooke		204	0.54	-4.15	460	1.19	-5.37
	United Future						154	0.40	-0.36
	Legalise Cannabis						151	0.39	+0.03
	Māori						140	0.36	-0.12
	Mana						58	0.15	+0.15
	Libertarianz						18	0.05	+0.02
	Democrats						13	0.03	+0.01
	Alliance						12	0.03	-0.03
Informal votes				615			257
Total Valid votes				37,828			38,563
	National hold		Majority	12,222	32.31	-9.31

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 49,407^[3]

2008 election

General Election 2008: Rodney[4]
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Lockwood Smith		22,698	60.41		22,441	58.99
	Labour	Conor Roberts		7,063	18.80		7,842	20.61
	Green	David Hay		2,890	7.69		1,969	5.18
	ACT	Beryl Good		1,760	4.68		2,496	6.56
	NZ First	Tracey Martin		1,599	4.26		1,722	4.53
	Family Party	Karl Adams		735	1.96		226	0.59
	Kiwi	Simonne Dyer		581	1.55		327	0.86
	United Future	Kathleen Deal		245	0.65		288	0.76
	Progressive						197	0.52
	Māori						182	0.48
	Bill and Ben						150	0.39
	Legalise Cannabis						136	0.36
	Alliance						24	0.06
	Libertarianz						11	0.03
	Democrats						9	0.02
	Workers Party						8	0.02
	Pacific						5	0.01
	RAM						5	0.01
	RONZ						4	0.01
Informal votes				226			107
Total Valid votes				37,571			38,042
	National hold		Majority	15,635	41.61	+10.57

2005 election

General Election 2005: Rodney[5]
Notes: Green 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. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Lockwood Smith		20,651	55.57	+16.99	19,799	52.65
	Labour	Tony Dunlop		9115	24.53	-0.85	10,462	27.82
	NZ First	Craig McNair		3496	9.41		3089	8.08
	Green	Graham Evans		1918	5.16		1631	4.34
	United Future	Peter Mountan		997	2.68		1162	3.09
	ACT	Christopher Brown		450	1.21		678	1.80
	Progressive	Tony Sharrock		332	0.89		319	0.85
	Māori	Adell Dick		166	0.45		107	0.28
	Direct Democracy	Colin Punter		36	0.10		2	0.01
	Destiny						238	0.63
	Legalise Cannabis						58	0.15
	Christian Heritage						36	0.10
	Alliance						18	0.05
	Democrats						15	0.04
	Family Rights						8	0.02
	Libertarianz						7	0.02
	99 MP						6	0.02
	RONZ						6	0.02
	One NZ						3	0.01
Informal votes				353			145
Total Valid votes				37,161			37,605
	National hold		Majority	11,536	31.04	+16.84

References

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library