Tāmaki (electorate)

The 1941 New Zealand census had been postponed due to World War II, so the 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The North Island gained a further two electorates from the South Island due to faster population growth. The abolition of the country quota through the Electoral Amendment Act, 1945 reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 27 electorates were abolished, eight former electorates were re-established, and 19 electorates were created for the first time, including Tamaki.^[2]

Tāmaki is based around the Auckland isthmus north-eastern beach suburbs, Mission Bay, Meadowbank, Saint Heliers, Kohimarama, Ōrākei and Glendowie; it also contains the suburbs of Glen Innes and Stonefields on its southern fringe.^[3] At the 2025 boundary review, the electorate would gain Point England from Panmure-Ōtāhuhu.^[4]

Tāmaki is the home of a selection of New Zealand's emblematic historical moments: Ngāti Whatua activism at Bastion Point (sparking a chain of events leading to the modern Treaty of Waitangi grievance settlement process) occurred inside the seat's boundaries, a seat at the time represented by the contentious Robert Muldoon, the Prime Minister responsible for the Crown's response to the occupation of Bastion Point. Among other Ngāti Whatua land taken through governmental application of public works legislation is Paratai Drive, once New Zealand's most expensive street. The area around Mission Bay is also home to the Savage Memorial, a huge site dedicated to the memory of former Labour Michael Joseph Savage, architect of the welfare state in New Zealand.

The National Party held Tāmaki in all its various incarnations from 1960 until 2023, their domination beginning when future Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (later Sir Robert) began his parliamentary career by ousting the Labour Party's Bob Tizard.^[5] Muldoon remained firmly in place until his self-selected departure from parliament at the end of 1991. In four elections (1972, 1975, 1978 and 1981) Bill Andersen of the Socialist Unity Party ran against him, receiving between 39 and 188 votes.

Muldoon's departure caused a by-election in 1992, where candidate Clem Simich won despite fierce competition in an environment where both major parties were out of favour with the electorate. Simich gave up his seat ahead of the 2005 election to high school principal Allan Peachey. Simich was returned to parliament from his party's list, having chosen to move from standing for one of his party's safest seats to instead contest Māngere, easily Labour's safest seat. From 2005, Tāmaki was represented by Allan Peachey, who announced his retirement at the end of the parliamentary term in 2011 for health reasons, and subsequently died shortly before the election. Simon O'Connor was chosen by the National Party to contest the electorate in the 2011 general election.^[6]

O'Connor won the seat comfortably in the general elections held in 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020 but later stirred controversy with his conservative views. O'Connor was one of only eight members of parliament to vote against the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act 2022,^[7] published a Facebook post welcoming the United States Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade^[8] and made comments in Parliament that linked a mass shooting in the US to remarks that Marama Davidson, co-leader of the Greens, had made about white cisgender men.^[9] In response to O'Connor's controversial views several Tāmaki residents called for O'Connor to resign as their Member of Parliament,^[10] and he faced ultimately unsuccessful challenges to his candidacy for the National Party in the lead up to the 2023 general election.^[11][12]

Brook van Velden of the ACT New Zealand party subsequently won the seat in the 2023 general election, ending the six-decade reign of the National Party.^[13]