Papakura (New Zealand electorate)

Papakura is an electorate for the New Zealand House of Representatives, based in the south Auckland town of Papakura. Historically, the name refers to an electorate that existed between and, which with the advent of Mixed Member Proportional voting and resulting reduction in the number of constituencies was folded into a new  seat. In Hunua was modified, pulled northwards and renamed.

In a modern sense, the name refers to a constituency which was fought for the first time at the. This new Papakura seat is the successor to the old Clevedon seat. It also contains a set of towns to the west of Papakura, namely Drury, Karaka and Kingseat. Until 2014 it also included Waiau Pa and Clarks Beach. The current MP is Judith Collins, of the National Party.

Population centres
The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established through an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government. As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed. This had little practical effect on people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island. The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Papakura) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the.

History
In the 1978 election, the Papakura electorate was won by National's Merv Wellington, who had been MP for the Manurewa electorate since. When he retired at the, he was succeeded by John Robertson.

Members of Parliament
Key

1Robertson defected to the United party in 1995.

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

Key

2014 election
Electorate (as at 4 October 2014): 45,992

2011 election
Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 44,164