Waikato (New Zealand electorate)

Waikato is the name of a current electorate in the New Zealand Parliament. The electorate first existed from 1871 to 1963, and then from 1969 to 1996 when MMP was introduced. The current electorate was re-established for the 2008 election and has since then been represented by Lindsay Tisch for the National Party.

Through an amendment in the Electoral Act in 1965, the number of electorates in the South Island was fixed at 25, an increase of one since the 1962 electoral redistribution. It was accepted that through the more rapid population growth in the North Island, the number of its electorates would continue to increase, and to keep proportionality, three new electorates were allowed for in the 1967 electoral redistribution for the next election. In the North Island, five electorates were newly created and one electorate was reconstituted (Waikato) while three electorates were abolished. In the South Island, three electorates were newly created and one electorate was reconstituted while three electorates were abolished. The overall effect of the required changes was highly disruptive to existing electorates, with all but three electorates having their boundaries altered. These changes came into effect with the 1969 election.

The electorate was recreated after the 2006 census, as the successor to the former Piako electorate. Piako has been pulled north to account for changes both in Auckland (where population growth has pulled the boundary of Port Waikato around the Waikato River), and in the central North Island, where several electorates went into the boundary review under quota, forcing their boundaries further north. It has lost the towns of Te Aroha to Coromandel and Cambridge to Taupō, and in exchange gained the rural and semi-urban areas around Hamilton East, and Huntly, Te Kauwhata and Meremere from Port Waikato.

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