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West Coast-Tasman


West Coast-Tasman is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate. Since its formation for the 1996 election, it has been held by Damien O'Connor of the Labour Party apart from one parliamentary term, when National's Chris Auchinvole was the representative from 2008 to 2011.

West Coast-Tasman is the second-largest general electorate in New Zealand, behind Clutha-Southland. It is one of the longest. The Representation Commission last adjusted the boundaries in the 2007 review, which first applied at the 2008 election, when the northern boundary moved closer to Nelson, and Wakefield, Foxhill and Belgrove were added. The electorate was not changed in the 2013/14 review.

The electorate includes the following population centres:

The electorate was formed in 1996 for the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system by combining the former Tasman and West Coast electorates.

Damien O'Connor was the first representative and he held the electorate until the 2008 general election, when he was beaten by National candidate Chris Auchinvole, who had previously been a list MP. Auchinvole's majority was 971. His position on the Labour Party list meant that O'Connor couldn't return to Parliament immediately. When the list MP Michael Cullen retired in May 2009, O'Connor regained his position as Member of the House of Representatives because he was the highest-ranked candidate on the list not already an MP. In contrast to the overall trend, he regained the electorate in the 2011 election.


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