Taranaki-King Country

Taranaki-King Country is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Taranaki-King Country is Barbara Kuriger of the National Party. She has held this position since the 2014 general election.

Taranaki-King Country
Single-member general constituency for the New Zealand House of Representatives
Formation	1996
Region	Taranaki and Waikato
Character	Rural
Term	3 years
Member for Taranaki-King Country
Barbara Kuriger[1]
Party	National
Previous MP	Shane Ardern (National)
Party vote distribution

Population centres

Taranaki-King Country stretches down the western coast of the North Island, starting at the outskirts of Hamilton, through to the King Country towns of Te Awamutu, Ōtorohanga and Te Kūiti, and ending in the northern Taranaki region, to take in the northern section of the New Plymouth urban area and all of Stratford District. From 2008, it has included the town of Raglan.

The boundaries have gradually been expanded as the population has fallen, relative to the overall population of the country. At the 2013 revision the proposed boundaries received the third highest number (25) of objections in the country.^[2] After the 2013 revision the constituency covered parts of 3 regional councils and 7 district councils (Waikato District, Waipa District, Ōtorohanga District, Waitomo District, New Plymouth District, Stratford District, Ruapehu District), including Hamilton Airport.

History

The seat was created ahead of the introduction of mixed-member proportional voting in 1996 from most of the old King Country seat with parts of Taranaki, Waitotara in the south and Waipa in the area around Hamilton. All these seats were safe National seats covering rural areas traditionally loyal to the National Party, the new seat remained faithful to old allegiances in the face of a large swing to New Zealand First in the central North Island at the 1996 election. The first MP for Taranaki-King Country was the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jim Bolger.

Having been ousted from the leadership of his party, Bolger accepted the role of Ambassador to the United States in the middle of 1998, and triggered the 1998 by-election. Despite a large swing to ACT Party candidate Owen Jennings, Bolger's chosen successor Shane Ardern won a narrow victory on a heavily reduced turnout. Since the 1998 by-election, Taranaki-King Country has reverted to form, giving Ardern two out of every three votes cast in 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Members of Parliament

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

Key

  National   Alliance   Labour

Election	Winner
1996 election		Jim Bolger
1998 by-election		Shane Ardern
1999 election
2002 election
2005 election
2008 election
2011 election
2014 election		Barbara Kuriger
2017 election
2020 election
2023 election

List MPs

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

Election	Winner
1999 election		Kevin Campbell
		Owen Jennings
2005 election		Maryan Street
2020 election		Angela Roberts

Election results

2023

2023 general election: Taranaki-King Country[3]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Barbara Kuriger		24,760	67.75	+21.69	19,281	46.97	+10.70
	Labour	Angela Roberts		10,405	25.67	–12.67	7,022	17.10	–20.37
	Independent	William Bruce Burr		3,388	8.35	–
	Vision NZ	Daryl Raison		948	2.33	–
	ACT						5,484	13.36	+2.01
	NZ First						3,398	8.27	+5.53
	Green						2,828	6.88	+2.09
	NZ Loyal						800	1.94	–
	Opportunities						645	1.45	+0.22
	Te Pāti Māori						494	1.20	+0.74
	NewZeal						229	0.55	+0.39
	Legalise Cannabis						165	0.40	+0.02
	Freedoms NZ						137	0.33	–
	New Conservatives						104	0.25	–2.47
	DemocracyNZ						77	0.18	–
	Animal Justice						66	0.16	–
	Leighton Baker Party						43	0.10	–
	Women's Rights						32	0.07	–
	New Nation						31	0.07	–
Informal votes				1,029			209
Total valid votes				40,530			41,045
	National hold		Majority	14,355	35.41	+27.70

2020

2020 general election: Taranaki-King Country[4]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Barbara Kuriger		18,702	46.06	-19.25	14,851	36.27	-21.63
	Labour	Angela Roberts		15,568	38.34	+14.81	15,341	37.47	+13.67
	ACT	Brent Miles		2,376	5.85	—	4,648	11.35	+10.73
	New Conservative	Lee Anne Smith		2,151	5.30	+3.75	1,115	2.72	+2.40
	Outdoors	Christopher Grey		870	2.14	—	121	0.30	+0.20
	Green						1,962	4.79	+0.36
	NZ First						1,123	2.74	-6.24
	Advance NZ						513	1.25	—
	Opportunities						502	1.23	-0.97
	Māori Party						187	0.46	-0.06
	Legalise Cannabis						154	0.38	+0.06
	ONE						66	0.16	—
	Vision NZ						30	0.07	—
	Sustainable NZ						26	0.06	—
	Social Credit						21	0.05	+0.01
	TEA						18	0.04	—
	Heartland						8	0.02	—
Informal votes				938			260
Total valid votes				40,605			40,946
	National hold		Majority	3,134	7.71	-34.07

2017

2017 general election: Taranaki-King Country[5]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Barbara Kuriger		23,854	65.31	-2.86	21,466	57.9	-3.56
	Labour	Hilary Humphrey		8,595	23.53	+6.57	8,823	23.8	10.45
	Green	Robert Moore		2,900	7.94	-1.5	1,643	4.43	-2.78
	Conservative	Allan Thomson		568	1.55	-2.79	118	0.32	-5.36
	NZ First						3,330	8.98	-0.5
	Opportunities						815	2.2	—
	ACT						231	0.62	+0.26
	Māori Party						194	0.52	-0.03
	Legalise Cannabis						120	0.32	-0.17
	Ban 1080						97	0.26	-0.2
	Outdoors						37	0.10	—
	United Future						37	0.10	-0.15
	People's Party						31	0.09	—
	Democrats						13	0.04	-0.02
	Mana						9	0.02	-0.55[a]
	Internet						7	0.02	-0.55[b]
Informal votes				606			124
Total valid votes				36,523			37,095
	National hold		Majority	15,259	41.78	-9.43

2014

2014 general election: Taranaki-King Country[6]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Barbara Kuriger		22,328	68.17	-1.48	20,637	61.46	+1.02
	Labour	Penny Gaylor		5,555	16.96	+2.26	4,483	13.35	-2.60
	Green	Robert Moore		3,091	9.44	+0.02	2,422	7.21	-1.02
	Conservative	Edward Aish		1,420	4.34	+4.34	1,907	5.68	+1.88
	Internet	Grant Keinzley		209	0.64	+0.64
	Democrats	David Espin		152	0.46	+0.46	20	0.06	-0.02
	NZ First						3,182	9.48	+2.22
	Internet Mana						191	0.57	+0.30
	Māori Party						185	0.55	-0.12
	Legalise Cannabis						163	0.49	-0.08
	Ban 1080						156	0.46	+0.46
	ACT						120	0.36	-1.13
	United Future						85	0.25	-0.85
	Civilian						11	0.03	+0.03
	Independent Coalition						9	0.03	+0.03
	Focus						8	0.02	+0.02
Informal votes				463			99
Total valid votes				33,218			33,678
	National hold		Majority	16,773	51.21	+0.78

2011

2011 general election: Taranaki-King Country[7]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Shane Ardern		20,842	69.65	+0.97	18,759	60.44	+0.90
	Labour	Rick Barker		5,753	19.22	-0.33	4,950	15.95	-5.24
	Green	Robert Moore		2,819	9.42	+1.01	2,554	8.23	+3.25
	United Future	Victoria Rogers		511	1.71	+1.71	340	1.10	+0.30
	NZ First						2,252	7.26	+2.76
	Conservative						1,180	3.80	+3.80
	ACT						461	1.49	-3.57
	Māori Party						209	0.67	-0.34
	Legalise Cannabis						181	0.58	+0.23
	Mana						83	0.27	+0.27
	Democrats						25	0.08	-0.17
	Alliance						24	0.08	-0.01
	Libertarianz						20	0.06	+0.01
Informal votes				1,046			251
Total valid votes				29,925			31,038
	National hold		Majority	15,089	50.42	+1.30

Electorate (as at 11 November 2011): 41,152^[8]

2008

2008 general election: Taranaki-King Country[9]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Shane Ardern		21,834	68.67		19,232	59.54
	Labour	Renée van de Weert		6,216	19.55		6,844	21.19
	Green	Rob Hamill		2,675	8.41		1,607	4.97
	ACT	William Izard		767	2.41		1,634	5.06
	Democrats	Iain Parker		302	0.95		82	0.25
	NZ First						1,451	4.49
	Māori Party						327	1.01
	United Future						258	0.80
	Bill and Ben						244	0.76
	Progressive						192	0.59
	Kiwi						151	0.47
	Legalise Cannabis						114	0.35
	Family Party						96	0.30
	Alliance						28	0.09
	Libertarianz						16	0.05
	Workers Party						13	0.04
	Pacific						9	0.03
	RONZ						3	0.01
	RAM						1	0.00
Informal votes				391			153
Total valid votes				31,794			32,302
	National hold		Majority	15,618	49.12

2005

2005 general election: Taranaki-King Country[10]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Shane Ardern		20,867	67.62	+16.43	17,760	56.42
	Labour	Maryan Street		7,749	25.11	+0.16	7,886	25.05
	United Future	Anne Copeland		568	1.84		638	2.03
	ACT	Richard Steele		547	1.77		659	2.09
	Progressive	William Smith		510	1.65		256	0.81
	Destiny	Tony Harrison		425	1.38		279	0.89
	Christian Heritage	Mark Jones		195	0.63		70	0.22
	NZ First						2,538	8.06
	Green						990	3.15
	Māori Party						191	0.61
	Legalise Cannabis						89	0.28
	Democrats						35	0.11
	Libertarianz						20	0.06
	Alliance						15	0.05
	One NZ						13	0.04
	Direct Democracy						12	0.04
	99 MP						10	0.03
	Family Rights						8	0.03
	RONZ						8	0.03
Informal votes				411			139
Total valid votes				30,861			31,477
	National hold		Majority	13,118	42.51	+16.27

1999

Refer to Candidates in the New Zealand general election 1999 by electorate#Taranaki-King Country for a list of candidates.

1998 by-election

1998 Taranaki-King Country by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Shane Ardern	5,953	29.43
	ACT	Owen Jennings	4,965	24.55
	Labour	Max Purnell	3,546	17.53
	Alliance	Kevin Campbell	3,208	15.46
	Christian Heritage	Ewen McQueen	561	2.77
	NZ First	Robin Ord	560	2.77
	Green	Cindy McDonald	503	2.49
	Legalise Cannabis	Michael Appleby	393	1.94
	United NZ	Pauline Gardiner	127	0.63
	Independent	Doug Wilson	127	0.63
	McGillicuddy Serious	Paul Cooke	76	0.38
	Independent	Brett Power	56	0.28
	Animals First	Alistair McKellow	49	0.24
	Independent	Greg Walker	32	0.16
	Social Credit	Avon James Harris	17	0.08
	Natural Law	Tony Martin	17	0.08
	Independent	Victor Bryers	15	0.07
	Youth Independence	Robert Terry	10	0.05
	Mana Wahine	Mary Gilmore	7	0.03
	Progressive Party	Ralph Dell	3	0.01
Majority			984	4.87
Turnout			20,225
	National hold		Swing	-32.51

Notes

1. 2017 Mana Party swing is relative to the votes for Internet-Mana in 2014; it shared a party list with the Internet Party in the 2014 election
2. 2017 Internet Party swing is relative to the votes for Internet-Mana in 2014; it shared a party list with Mana Party in the 2014 election