Papakura (New Zealand electorate)

Papakura is an electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives, based in the south Auckland town of Papakura. Historically, the name refers to an electorate that existed between 1978 and 1996, which with the advent of Mixed Member Proportional voting and resulting reduction in the number of constituencies was folded into a new Hunua seat. In 2002 Hunua was modified, pulled northwards and renamed Clevedon.

In a modern sense, the name refers to a constituency which was fought for the first time at the 2008 election. This new Papakura seat is the successor to the old Clevedon seat. It also contains a set of towns to the west of Papakura, namely Drury, Karaka and Kingseat. Until 2014 it also included Waiau Pa and Clarks Beach. The current MP is Judith Collins, of the National Party.

The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established through an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government. As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed. This had little practical effect for people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island. The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Papakura) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.

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