Taranaki-King Country

Taranaki-King Country
Single-member constituency for the New Zealand House of Representatives
Location of Taranaki-King Country within Taranaki and Waikato
Region	Taranaki and Waikato
Major settlements	Te Awamutu
Area	13,052.67 km2 (5,039.66 sq mi)
Current constituency
Current MP	Barbara Kuriger
Party	National

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 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.^[1] 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.

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.

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

Key

  National   Alliance   Labour

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.

2023 general election: Taranaki-King Country[2]
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 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		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 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		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

2011 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	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^[7]

2008 general election: Taranaki-King Country[8]
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 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		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

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

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