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Objection

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Mr Hendricus J Habraken

Port Waikato is the name of a very small settlement and is not near the bulk of the population of this proposed electorate and means that people do not relate to this name.

Objection

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Mr Brian Cox

During the last 4 elections in this electorate, I have constantly fielded complaints/criticism of the names "Hunua"and "Port Waikato". These rural towns are small, remote places with minimal significance to the rest of the electorate. My uninformed explanation of "probably chosen on a geographical basis, somewhere near the middle" cuts no ice with constituents.
"Why cant we be called Franklin?" they ask....Recent developments support this view.
Firstly, the proposed new boundary changes revert back, even more closely, to the old Franklin County region, especially the re-instated northern Waikato areas.
Secondly, the pending sale of extensive land/buildings in Pukekohe, formerly owned by by the Franklin Council, has revived public sentiment about Franklin. Headlines in a recent Franklin County News (28/11/2019) highlight this feeling. Voters in this electorate (35+ yrs old) still strongly identify with the name/region of Franklin.

Objection

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Sheryn Hull

I do not feel Port Waikato is a truly reflective name for the new electorate. It's a tiny village on the verge of being washed into the ocean.

Objection

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John Duncan

Your website asks if people want to file objections. What if a person actually wants to welcome/endorse a proposal?
The proposal to create (or re-create) the Port Waikato seat is in my opinion a brilliant move. The people to the west of the Franklin Ward, and the area to the south of it heading down to Port Waikato, have a hugely greater 'community of interest" than the elements of the old Hunua seat did, Apart from both being in the Franklin Ward of Auckland Council, the residents of Beachlands have zero in common with the citizens of Pukekohe, and I believe the decision to move away from approximating the Auckland Council boundary as the electorate boundary is extremely sensible. Pukekohe was for decades the 'market town' of the proposed new electorate. Perhaps the only desirable tweak I might suggest would have been to include the rural elements of Karaka (stopping short of including the new developments adjacent to the motorway, labelled Karaka Lakes and similar, which properly belong with Papakura) which also used Pukekohe as their market town. I would have drawn the boundary at Charles Rd, rather than Kingseat Rd (which I acknowledge is the existing boundary), but I appreciate that the balancing of numbers had to mean some little infelicities.
Dare one hope that the proposal is an indication, finally, that the Electoral Commission recognises that the inclusion of Franklin District to Auckland Council was misguided?

Objection

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Karapiro Riverside Estate Homeowners Association

The Electorate Boundary at Hydro Road veers off (SH 1) Tirau Road, to include Riverside Lane, alone, in the Waikato Electorate. The rest of Karapiro Village is in the Taupo Electorate.
Riverside Lane is a no exit road with only 20 houses.
Riverside Lane is in the Karapiro Village, Cambridge for Local Body Elections. i.e. Waipa District Council.
The Member of Parliament for Taupo Electorate has her Electorate Office in Cambridge. As the boundary stands at present for General Elections our Member of Parliament for Waikato lives and works on the far side of Hamilton and has nothing to do with Cambridge.
The Waikato MP does not even advertise himself in the Cambridge area!
Geographically, Riverside Lane is in the Cambridge area and not involved with Waikato.
Riverside Lane is in the Waipa District Council area for electricity, water and postal.
Riverside Lane is designated residential, not rural for town planning.
The KREHA Body Corporate believed it was in the Taupo Electorate until I pointed out the anomaly to them.

• Existing-Boundries-RIVERSIDE-LANE.PNG (PNG 120 KB)
• New-Boundary-proposed-by-Commission.PNG (PNG 247 KB)
• Our-Submission.docx (docx 17 KB)
• SUGGESTED-SOLUTION-1-NEW-Boundary-proposed-by-us.jpg (jpg 713 KB)
• SUGGESTION-SOLUTION-2-Following-Waikato-Stream.jpg (jpg 719 KB)

Objection

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Mrs Katrina Simoson

i feel that it will segregate Tiraunfrim the rest of our Council area. it will be Tokoroa, Putaruru and then us. Also council will have two MPs to work with. Im very happy with Louise Upston in our Taupo area, she is amazing and taljs to all areas regularly, I personally like how she votea on certain issues as well. I feel we would fall through the gaps if boundary changed

Objection

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Mr John Coles

A proposed Boundary Change of the small area of Land bounded by Hydro R, The Waikato River and the Ferguson River Bridge
This area to be incorporated into Taupo electorate from Waikato electorate. I or We live on the Waikato side of Hydro Rd

Objection

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Mark Servian

The traditional ‘East’ and ‘West’ electorates In Hamilton do not reflect the reality that the city is now divided north-south on social, political and demographic grounds.
Most Hamiltonians would recognise this reality and, I believe, agree with the statement above.
What ‘hard’ evidence can I point to?
The Hamilton City Council’s 2018 Representation Review made the following points when considering a north-south split for their wards.
Option 3: Two ward with a North/South divide
Data which could support this option:
• Northern areas of Hamilton share similar demographic characteristics (Census 2013)
o High proportions of European
o Less ethnic diversity
o Higher incomes
o Higher median ages
• Southern areas of Hamilton share similar demographic characteristics (census 2013)
o Higher levels of ethnic diversity
o Lower incomes
o Younger population
There is a clear North/South divide when we consider where people shop relative to where they live
• Shopping patterns (community profile survey 2018)
Refer to Page 2 at https://www.hamilton.govt.nz/our-council/Council_meetings_and_public_information/Documents/Representation%20Review%202018-19%20-%20Options%20for%20representation%20-%2012%20June%202018.pdf.
Also, the mapping of the 2017 General Election results published by The Spinoff indicates that Hamilton is clearly divided north-south in terms of voting patterns.
Refer to the ‘Hamilton’ link at https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-09-2017/interactive-mapping-every-booths-votes-from-the-2017-general-election/.
The facts pointed to at the links above should be further investigated by the Commission, as confirmation would suggest such a north-south divide would most closely fulfil the terms of the Act.

Objection

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Janelle Carter

Omokoroa being proposed to add into Coromandal. We are no where near Coromandal. it makes no sense at all. Bay of Plenty / Western Bay of Plenty / Tauranga I can understand.

Objection

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Dr Jean-Paul Thull

FACT: There is a proposal to shift the Coromandel electoral further south. Right now it, sits at Katikati and the proposal is to shift the boundary further down to Omokoroa to capture a few more people.
While I do understand some rationale, I wish to highlight the inconsistency with existing district boundaries in the first place, where Waihi would be the logical boundary. The Coromandel is very different from the Western Bay of Plenty and geographically wide-spread, to allow MPs to cover properly the issues in both areas, as they are different. While the Coromandel is closely related to tourism, resilience issues in terms of infrastructure, bio-diversity, nature conservation, small town survival modus and logging, Western Bay is mainly dealing with horticulture and peri-urban growth and all effects of these (e.g. congestion, road safety SH2, Port access, residential development).
This means that much of the work and involvement of any MP required, will play in two areas… Thames/Coromandel/Whitianga and Katikati/Omokoroa/Tauranga, both geographically/travel time-wise not convenient at all. As a member of public, I wish to have easy access to my local MP and expect my local MP to attend local or regional meetings affecting my region. Tauranga has grown quickly into Greater Tauranga region, requiring holistic leadership where local MPs need to have access to. In this case, it will be difficult to require the Coromandel MP to cover an increasing geographical area. I would even propose to shift the boundary back to Waihi, as Katikati issues are Western Bay DC issues and should be represented by a local MP like we had Hon Todd Muller so far. Right now, I am very pleased to have excellent access to my local MP and realising he has a good understanding of the issues, as he loves local.

Objection

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Mr Hamish Morris

I live in the Bay of Plenty not the Coromandel! Our member represents our area well and I don not believe we should incorporated into the Coromandel who have very different needs than ours.

Objection

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Mayor Garry Webber, Western Bay of Plenty District Council

By using "Bay of Plenty" as the name for this electorate is a gross misnomer as there are many electorates that make up the Bay of Plenty Province.

Objection

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Allan Chesswas and Neil Walker

Please consider our objection to the proposed electoral boundaries below. I have also attached an objection I made at the previous boundary review, which goes into some detail about options for alternative boundaries. I do hope though that in 2019/2020 the entire Stratford district will be able to be pulled together into the Whanganui electorate, which is an easy option for delineating the new boundary.
We would like to make an objection to the proposed electoral boundaries, noting that the boundaries which changed at the last election split rural Stratford from urban Stratford, whereas the whole community is interdependent together in the Stratford District under one territorial authority, and the Stratford township serves as the urban service centre for the wider community. This split makes it very difficult for political institutions to function effectively, without having the same member representing the community in the house. The closest Taranaki King Country electorate office is in Inglewood, 20 minutes north of Stratford, and we have to drive through Stratford to get there. Meanwhile the MP for Whanganui has an electorate office in Stratford.
I note that the populations for each electorate are similar (Taranaki-King Country 63,450, and Whanganui 64,175), but the Taranaki-King Country electorate is projected to grow by 3,125 to 67,300 by 2023, whereas the Whanganui electorate is only projected to grow by 25 to 64,200. This means that the Whanganui Electorate is way below tolerance in 2023 at -9%, which is outside the rules set by Parliament and leaves the electorate population much lower than it should be.
The population of Stratford District that aren’t currently included in the Whanganui electorate would be around 1000 – 1500 based on ward statistics I have seen from past censuses. Shifting this population to join its urban Stratford counterpart in the Whanganui electorate would mean that populations for each electorate would be much more similar and much closer to quota in 2023, and would mean that whole Stratford community would have better integrity at both this election and the next.
If including the entire Stratford rural ward population is considered too many people, there are other alternatives to include smaller portions of the district, which were outlined in an objection submitted by Allan Chesswas in the 2014 review. This earlier objection is attatched for your information.

• Alternative-Whanganui-TKC-Boundarie1.pdf (pdf 1.1 MB)

Objection

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Mrs Vivienne Ferris

I live on the outskirts of Hamilton. It is ridiculous to have my MP based in New Plymouth. I wish to be counted in Hamilton or Waikato. My address is RD9 HAMILTON. Nowhere near New Plymouth. I do not want to vote if my vote is counted in New Plymouth.

Objection

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Mr Bevin Thirkell

We live in palmerston north, however the boundary of the Palmerston North / Rangitikei Electorate runs down the middle of James line putting our half of the street in an electorate that is irrelevant to us.