Election 2023: Waimakariri, the electorate with NZ’s highest proportion of homeowners (Waimakariri electorate profile)

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

In the lead-up to the 2023 general election, The Press is profiling Canterbury’s electoral races. Here’s what you need to know about the candidates running to be Waimakariri’s MP. (By reporter Keiller MacDuff).

The relatively young electorate of Waimakariri was created in 1996 ahead of the first MMP electorate from parts of the old Rangiora and Christchurch North electorates, and includes the rural towns of Oxford, Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Pegasus.

Former Labour Prime Minister Mike Moore represented the area three times - first when it was the Papanui electorate from 1978-81, then Christchurch North from 1984-87, and finally Waimakariri from 1996-99.

He was succeeded by Labour’s Clayton Cosgrove, the longest-serving Waimakariri MP, who lost the seat in 2011 to National’s Kate Wilkinson, the first and only woman to represent Waimakariri, from 2011 to 2014.

National party MP Matt Doocey won the electorate in 2014, and has held it ever since.

In the 2014 boundary review, Waimakariri lost much of Redwood to Christchurch Central and Marshland to the Christchurch East electorate.

The red tide of 2020 saw the Waimakariri party vote join the swing to Labour. In 2017, the National Party won 53% of the party vote, compared to Labour’s 32%. Three years later, Labour took 49% to National’s 28%.

Sitting MP Doocey is National’s senior whip, the South Island’s top-ranked National MP (#8 on the list), party spokesperson on youth, mental health and suicide prevention, and associate health spokesperson.

Labour MP Dan Rosewarne (#32 on his party’s list) entered Parliament in June 2022, following the resignation of Kris Faafoi.

The former army officer who lives in Woodend lost to Doocey in 2020 by one of the smallest margins in the country (1507 votes).

ACT’s candidate Ross Campbell (#43 on the the party list) lives in Rangiora and is pledging to “help the people in my little piece of the world”.

Deputy leader of Democracy NZ Gordon Malcolm, the anti-mandate party formed by ex-National Party MP Matt King, is promising to open an inquiry into the Waimakariri District Council’s property purchases, reject co-governance, and stand up to “climate change hysteria”.

Former leader of the New Conservative party Leighton Baker is making his sixth attempt for an electorate, albeit with a brand new party, the eponymous Leighton Baker Party.

Turnout in 2020 was 87.5% - compared to national enrolled voter turnout of 81.5%.

The Waimakariri district’s population has passed 66,000 and is on track to top 78,000 by 2031.

An influx of residents following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes saw rapid growth in the past decade.

One of the most monocultural electorates in New Zealand - second only to Rodney in the proportion of European residents (91.2%) - Māori (8.7%) and Asian (4.5%) populations are about half and one-third the national averages respectively, and it has the second lowest Pasifika population (1.5%) in the country.

Waimakariri has the highest proportion of homeowners in New Zealand, with nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of households in the electorate owning or partly owning their own home.

The three major employing industries are construction (14.3%), manufacturing (11.5%) and retail (10.6%).