Wikipedia talk:WikiProject New Zealand/politics

Next PM
It might be a good idea to get the articles into shape of prospective successors to our current PM. The reason I'm saying that is that the successor will be featured on the Main Page in the ITN (in the news) section. There's already a discussion about posting an item about Ardern's foreshadowed resignation (consensus appears to be to wait until a successor has been chosen) and once we know who's in the top job, there will then be a discussion whether the target article is up to scratch. We might as well tidy things up now. Maintenance tags are a no no and uncited content isn't appreciated either. We have three front runners as far as I can see:
 * Chris Hipkins – I've tidied that one up already
 * Kiri Allan (looks a bit on the short side)
 * Michael Wood

Anyone else who you think could be worth looking at? If anyone has time between now and Sunday, that would be a good task to attend to.  Schwede 66  20:43, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

Election infobox parameters removed
Just noticed that the election infobox template has had a few parameters deleted such as "leader's seat" and "leader since". Was anyone here aware of this? I sure wasn't! A consensus of about a dozen users removed information from the 27,000 pages that use these data parameters. I feel this is insufficient and would like users from projects like this one to actually have a say. Kiwichris (talk) 23:11, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Citing the AJHR - opportunity for a new template ?
I have recently found a need to cite a source from the AJHR - Appendix to the Journal of the House of Representatives. I looked at a few existing articles that had cited AJHR, but thought that none of the examples I found were well presented. See Referendums in New Zealand, Mazengarb Report, History of education in New Zealand, Search and Surveillance Act 2012, Lyttelton Rail Tunnel, Eastern Line (Auckland).

I note that most of the 1860 to 1950 volumes of AJHR have been digitised and are available online (via Papers Past). Many NZ-related articles could possibly benefit from a citation directing readers to sources in the online versions of AJHR. Is there an opportunity here for a new template to standardise and improve the presentation of citations of AJHR, and at the same time, make it a bit easier for editors ? Do we have anyone we could ask to develop such a template ? Comments please. Marshelec (talk) 01:17, 22 February 2023 (UTC)


 * That would obviously make sense. Those templates are easy enough. New Zealand referencing templates include Template:DNZB (there's always a related documentation, in this case at Template:DNZB/doc), Template:LINZ, and Template:Macdonald Dictionary; those might be good starting points. It might be useful to know that when you talk to librarians about the AJHR, they all call it the "A to J".  Schwede 66  03:57, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Discussion at Content assessment
You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Content assessment, which is within the scope of this WikiProject. &#x0020;This WikiProject received this message because it currently uses "Current" and/or "Future" class(es). There is a proposal to split these two article "classes" into a new parameter "time", in order to standardise article-rating across Wikipedia (per RfC), while also allowing simultaneous usage of quality criteria and time for interest projects. Thanks! &#8212;CX Zoom[he/him] (let's talk • {C•X}) 06:44, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

List candidate photos
Please have a look at WikiProject New Zealand/politics/2023 list candidate photos. The page explains its purpose and it's a repeat of what we did for the 2020 election (which gained us a full set of photos of Labour candidates). Please discuss this here. I look forward to your thoughts. Naturally, there are a few things to do and any help would be much appreciated. Tasks to do:
 * discuss the overall approach
 * review (and edit) the draft open letter
 * help with compiling contact email addresses for the parties
 * email those parties

I shall go ahead and email the Greens and ACT, given that they have their lists published already.  Schwede 66  09:52, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi . Thanks for getting this started. I like how to-the-point the tone is and hope that it generates results. I see you have already sent the link out to two parties. My suggestions going forward would be to:
 * break up the page/letter with some headings to make it easier to read;
 * embed a screenshot of the relevant 2020 Main Page section as an image in the letter to make it easier for parties to see possible outcomes of participation; and
 * make clearer the benefits for political parties who participate.
 * Off the top of my head the latter would include assisting with voters' recognition of candidates and ensuring that those who are elected (who automatically qualify for having an article created about them) will have a recent photo on that page (and you could stress that Wikipedia articles about new MPs are posted usually the day after the election – they may not know). You may be able to think of others. &mdash; idiosyn critic  20:45, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Good ideas, . I'd say get cracking with implementing those suggestions; they are all good!  Schwede 66  21:47, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
 * All done! Let me know your feedback or, of course, feel free to edit the page yourself :) &mdash; idiosyn critic  18:16, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Looking splendid!  Schwede 66  18:59, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Final update here; the main discussion happens at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject New Zealand/politics/2023 list candidate photos. All parties have now been emailed. ACT has come back to us saying that they are in.  Schwede 66  06:16, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Incoming MPs
For the fourth time (I think), we are creating draft bios for all those election candidates who have a chance to be an MP after the general election. It needs more input; there are still many red links sitting there for likely MPs, and other drafts need more work.

It's not the done thing to start new bios in main space during the election campaign. There's little tolerance for promotional activities, and many an election campaign bio gets deleted. But we have a great process for that as we collaborate on writing bios in draft space and once it's clear who will enter parliament, we publish those who made it. Most of the time, we have all new MP bios published the morning after the election. The action happens at WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs.  Schwede 66  19:39, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Indicating when electorate maps in infoboxes are outdated
The infoboxes for some electorate articles have maps from 2014, but the boundaries have since changed. I can't figure out how to change the caption to indicate that it shows 2014 boundaries, not current ones. Of course, an up-to-date map would be even better. Examples: Ilam (New Zealand electorate) and Wigram (New Zealand electorate). Additionally, the current captions say, e.g., "Location of Ilam within Canterbury", when the map is actually of the South Island, not just Canterbury. But, at a minimum, we should indicate that they are 2014 maps. Nurg (talk) 23:33, 18 September 2023 (UTC)


 * On a related note we are missing maps for at least some of the electorates created in 2020 (I haven't checked them all) - e.g. Taieri and Takanini. DrThneed (talk) 01:36, 19 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I have been meaning to update all the New Zealand electorate maps but have been very busy this month and haven't had a chance to be involved in the election updates at all as I intended (I was planning to automate the results updates as well). I can either generate line maps like they are now, or maybe slippy maps which will probably be easier to produce and more interactive and clear. Hopefully will get a chance in November! --Canley (talk) 07:27, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Some thoughts on Labour's list-only candidates
just added the following (uncited) content to the Adrian Rurawhe bio:

as speaker he is not contesting the electorate in the 2023 election and will likely return as a list MP.

For starters, we should not be adding uncited content to bios. The bigger problem is, though, that it is nowhere near clear that Rurawhe will return via the Labour list. Newhub's Jenna Lynch reported on that on Monday without explaining why. What she meant was the following:
 * Based on Monday's poll, Labour would get 33 MPs (Lynch did explain that)
 * Suppose Labour wins 33 electorate seat; if so, nobody will come in via the list (that's the part that she didn't explain)

It's of course impossible to predict how many electorate contests will go Labour's way. Like in 2020, there are 72 electorates being contested. I would be surprised if Labour won as many as 33 of them, but if they do, none of their candidates would get in who contest the list only. The article party lists in the 2023 New Zealand general election shows who is standing on the list only. Starting at the top, we have:
 * Grant Robertson (4)
 * Ayesha Verrall (7)
 * Willie Jackson (8)
 * Adrian Rurawhe (11)

Hence, if Labour wins 33 electorates, all of the above are out. If they win 32 electorates, only Robertson gets in. If they win 31 electorates, Robertson and Verrall get in. For Rurawhe to get in, they can't win more than 28 electorates. I will thus remove the uncited part from the Rurawhe bio but thought I'd post about it here as this list-only vulnerability is a broader issue.  Schwede 66  22:04, 28 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Thanks for that correction. You’re right, I was speculating, but of course speculating doesn’t work when you forget to actually go through the right steps too… — HTGS (talk) 23:47, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

1958 Clutha by-election?
Should we turn this section into a standalone by-election article? I'm wondering because:
 * pro: it was the same situation that triggered the 2023 Port Waikato by-election
 * against: in all the media reporting (only The Press is online for that period, though), it is only once referred to as a "by-election"; in all other cases, it's referred to as the "Clutha election"
 * neutral: In the New Zealand Parliamentary Record: 1840–1984 (Wilson, 1985), by-elections aren't specifically listed and given that 1958 was within James Roy's continuous 25-year service, this election isn't specifically mentioned.
 * neutral: The First 50 Years: A History of the New Zealand National Party (Gustafson, 1986) makes no mention of this election.

Any thoughts?  Schwede 66  21:55, 10 October 2023 (UTC)


 * I tried to find it in McRobie's Electoral Atlas ... but I can't find it (my copy of the book I mean, it seems to have mislaid itself). But in working [years ago] on by-election articles the fact that we didn't consider this then suggests that it's not in the Electoral Atlas either. I'd suggest that both Clutha 1958 and Port Waikato 2023 by-election pages have a place - as Redirects only.
 * Fanx (talk) 02:07, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
 * p. 104 of the Electoral Atlas has a footnote:
 * Election held 18 January 1958 following death of candidate after nominations had closed ... and no mention of it being a by-election.
 * In both cases the deaths were of another candidate other than the sitting candidate, and in both cases the sitting candidate was returned to parliament (Bayly is already elected as a list candidate regardless of the fact the delayed Port Waikato contest has not yet taken place). This election fails definition as a by-election on several points - no death of a current sitting member, no disqualification of a sitting member, no declaration of the original election being void. Fanx (talk) 03:08, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I've had a look at the Electoral Act 1993. It says in section 153E "New election to be held if writ vacated":
 * (2) On receiving notification under subsection (1), the Governor-General must, without delay, issue a writ for a fresh election in that district, and that election must be conducted as if it were a by-election unless this Act provides otherwise.
 * Hence, what's currently happening in Port Waikato is, strictly speaking, not a by-election. Although everyone calls it that, and given that we follow WP:COMMONNAME, it's certainly not wrong to have it titled 2023 Port Waikato by-election. And I'm glad that you managed to find your copy of McRobie, Fanx.  Schwede 66  03:55, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
 * "given that we follow WP:COMMONNAME, it's certainly not wrong to have it titled 2023 Port Waikato by-election"
 * Sure, we/you/anyone can add "aka Foo by-election", but I don't feel that earns it a place in list of by-elections, or as a named article. Looking at the act (or parts of it) it seems that the lock-in of the existing voter register to that of the general election is a defining point too. Fanx (talk) 22:08, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
 * "And I'm glad that you managed to find your copy of McRobie"
 * Thanks. I held off replying to this for several days because I couldn't lay my hands on the reference ... eventually I decided I wasn't going to find it, so commented anyway.
 * ... then an unexpected visitor caused me to look for something else - and I found McRobie instead. TMI ... probably. Fanx (talk) 22:14, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
 * A bit late to this, but agree that it wasn't a by-election. The Press isn't alone in not describing the Clutha situation as one, the 2 December 1957 issue of the NZ Herald doesn't use the term by-election when explaining why no poll was held in that electorate. Likewise the book New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946-1987 specifically marks by-elections in the result pages, but does not mark Clutha as having a by-election, it just has a note that the election was postponed until January. Kiwichris (talk) 06:43, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

2023 post-election to do items
I thought it to be a good idea to document what needs work and what has been done. Anyone can add to do lists here.

I'm working my way through Template:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives and its sub-templates. Have a look how I've laid out the main template for the time being, indicated New Zealand First as a "potential kingmaker". All current MP bios should have this template, plus their respective party template (e.g. in case of NZF, that would be Template:New Zealand First). I'll add those templates to the bios as I go through.  Schwede 66  00:25, 15 October 2023 (UTC)


 * A small change for someone is to put the Results of the 2023 New Zealand general election and 2023 New Zealand general election into a template like what was done in 2020. I haven't been able to figure out how to do this. — Panamitsu (talk) 02:21, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Parliament templates

 * ✅ Template:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
 * ✅ Template:New Zealand National Party MPs
 * ✅ Template:ACT New Zealand MPs
 * ✅ Template:New Zealand First MPs
 * ✅ Template:New Zealand Labour Party MPs
 * ✅ Template:Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand MPs
 * ✅ Template:Māori Party MPs

Party templates

 * ✅ Template:NZ National Party
 * ✅ Template:ACT New Zealand
 * ✅ Template:New Zealand First
 * ✅ Template:New Zealand Labour Party
 * ✅ Template:NZ Green Party
 * ✅ Template:Māori Party

Articles on MPs in the previous parliament
Ensure all MPs elected in 2020 have their articles updated to show what happened to them in 2023: re-election, loss of seat, or chose not to run. —HenryCrun15 (talk • contribs) 00:17, 16 October 2023 (UTC)
 * National Party MPs
 * ✅ ACT MPs
 * Labour MPs
 * Green MPs
 * ✅ TP Māori MPs

Final results (due 3 November 2023)
Final election results are expected to be released by the Electoral Commission this Friday afternoon. I thought it might be worthwhile to see what might happen, and whether there's anything that we could prepare. In previous elections, the special votes have favoured the political left for whatever reason, so it's most reasonable to check those parties first. Is there anyone who might gain a seat? If so, do we have a published bio yet, or is there a bio draft in project space?
 * Te Pāti Māori:
 * They've already got an overhang seat (i.e. they won more electorates than the party vote entitled them to), so any further party vote gain won't make any difference.
 * Two Māori electorates are close, though, with Labour being ahead by just under 500 votes in Tāmaki Makaurau (WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Takutai Moana Kemp) and Te Tai Tokerau (WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Mariameno Kapa-Kingi). Both those bio drafts could do with expansion, but at least we've got something.


 * Labour:
 * Apart from the Māori electorates discussed above, there are five general electorates with less than 500 votes between first and second comers. Four are currently held by National and one by Labour. If the second-placed candidate manages to flip the results, there isn't a direct impact as all those people have bios already. However, this may make a difference to who gets in from the list, of course.
 * If Helen White loses her seat, Glen Bennett would get in, but he's got an article already.
 * If Labour gets a higher share of the party vote, then Bennett would get in, followed by Vanushi Walters.
 * It's not likely that we need to prep ourselves for the next person on their list who hasn't got a live bio yet. WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Georgie Dansey is that person, and her draft bio is in good shape anyway, so no action needed.


 * Greens:
 * Next on the list is WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Kahurangi Carter and that draft bio needs work.


 * National:
 * Any of the four who hold their electorate with less than 500 votes sit down much further on the list than what guarantees entry into parliament. That is, if any of them loses, that will trigger Nancy Lu in list position 20 to be returned. Her draft bio is ready to go.
 * Beyond that, we would need three losses before we get to a person not already in parliament: Emma Chatterton. Her draft bio needs a little bit more work.


 * ACT:
 * WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Antonia Modkova is the next one on the ACT list. That draft bio needs work.


 * NZFirst:
 * WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/David Wilson (New Zealand First politician) is the next one on the NZFirst list. That draft bio needs work.

I hope that's helpful in case anyone has spare capacity.  Schwede 66  00:07, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Electorates
I've cast my eye over the 72 electorate articles and have produced the table below to confirm what still needs doing. Some notes go with that: Please amend the table below when something's been completed.  Schwede 66  23:51, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Regarding the 2023 results table, I have inspected whether the results are final or preliminary; if the latter, that needs updating, of course. All I've identified is whether there is a table for the latest election.
 * We aren't really that good at adding to the history part of the articles with who won the latest election.
 * With regards to the infobox, it should list the electorate MP and any list MPs who had contested the electorate and made it in via the list. Whilst the former is up to date, some list MPs are missing.
 * Only Takanini needs to have a table added for list MPs.


 * I believe the Electoral Commission is releasing the detailed results downloads on Monday 27 November—when they do, I can use my election data scripts to output the final tables for each electorate. --Canley (talk) 23:51, 24 November 2023 (UTC)


 * You have a script for that? 😮  Schwede 66  00:23, 25 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Do you have any update on that, @Canley? Just wondering as I was looking at perhaps updating an electorate or two, but if that can be automatised or you could create a script for that, that'd be brilliant.  JaumeBG  (talk) 07:49, 17 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Sorry, have been really busy and had some technical issues (for some reason the Electoral Commission has CloudFlare), but I've managed to download the data and will try and get the script running this weekend. --Canley (talk) 11:55, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

National Party photos
The photos have now been undeleted after licensing has been sorted out. See c:category:National%20Party%20candidates%20for%202023%20New%20Zealand%20general%20election. Crops need to be created and photos added to various articles. There’s lots to do! I’ll have another go at hitting up ACT and NZ First.  Schwede 66  16:13, 24 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I've done the following:
 * created a Commons category for every candidate
 * cropped the photos
 * added the crop to Wikidata and WP
 * added the crop to Party lists in the 2023 New Zealand general election
 *  Schwede 66  08:49, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

Did you know...


As per the last few elections, we are planning on having a mass-DYK nomination for new MPs. Those bios that are new need to have at least 1500 bytes of readable prose and then they qualify. There are 32 new MPs with new bios, and we have to nominate by next Saturday. Until then, we have time to expand some more so that they qualify. So far, we have six 17 bios ready; they are listed at WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs. I'd be keen to have every party represented; currently we have:
 * 2 from ACT (out of 3 new bios)
 * 2 from the Greens (out of 2 new bios)
 * 2 from Labour (out of 2 new bios)
 * 2 from Te Pāti Māori (out of 2 new bios)
 * 17 from National (out of 20 new bios)
 * 3 from NZ First (out of 3 new bios)

If you manage to expand a bio, head over to the other page and mark it with a tick. Thanks, team. Any questions, please ask. I suggest that we should try and have bios for the four candidates for whom we have photos (1 done already), so please concentrate on:
 * Reuben Davidson
 * Cushla Tangaere-Manuel
 * Darleen Tana

In 2020, we produced a collage of the nine photos that we had; it looked really cool.  Schwede 66  04:03, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

There's great work going on updating all sorts of articles and templates. Well done, team. Can I encourage everyone for the next few days to focus on adding to the bios of new MPs, though? and I will be doing a mass-nomination at DYK (see last election's example above) and Saturday is the last day for nominating everything. Find the list of bios to work on here. Currently, we have 13 articles in good shape ready for nomination; I'd like to exceed the number of articles we had last time. I shall once more write to ACT, NZF, National, and TPM to see whether they can make photos available.  Schwede 66  04:47, 17 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Hi, thanks for the reminder. Will try and find time over the next few days. Have been a bit preoccupied with other things but will try and find the time. Andykatib (talk) 06:03, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Fabulous work team! I've got my second bout of of COVID so am not being as productive as I'd hoped, but doing some bits and pieces here and there from the couch. Cheers, Chocmilk03 (talk) 02:38, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Feel better soon @Chocmilk03! Your contributions are appreciated but make sure you are resting enough. DrThneed (talk) 04:04, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
 * This is going great. Only four more bios to do and then we've done all the winners (based on the preliminary results).
 * All bios now meet the DYK requirements.  Schwede 66  22:19, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

Nomination of Women's Rights Party article for deletion
For anyone interested there is a discussion taking place as to whether the article Women's Rights Party is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia. Check Articles for deletion/Women's Rights Party if so. Kiwichris (talk) 06:26, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Francisco Hernandez
Input is needed at Talk:Francisco Hernandez (politician); please comment there to keep the discussion in one place.  Schwede 66  13:29, 7 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Now at Draft talk:Francisco Hernandez (politician). Not one of the finest moments of User:Villian Factman.  Schwede 66  23:26, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Angie Warren Birthplace and Birthplace
@Pokelova @Schwede66. Hello, I have added Angie Warren-Clark birthdate as 16 June 1971 because I have heard it while I am watching Parliament TV, plus I have more info from the 10 October 2017 article on Northern Advocate that she was born in Murupara but moved to Northland at the very young age. Villian Factman (talk) 07:34, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Benjamin Doyle
Now that Francisco Hernandez has become an MP, I suggest we better get onto WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Benjamin Doyle. They are the next one on the list. Should Darleen Tana resign or get pushed, they would be offered the position.  Schwede 66  09:45, 6 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Ok, Tana is being pushed. Anybody got time to work on WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Benjamin Doyle?  Schwede 66  03:55, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Infobox New Zealand electorate
I think the currently-used generic is a bit lackluster (its even got a formatting error baked in). I started trying to create a new template at User:TheLoyalOrder/Infobox New Zealand electorate (see User:TheLoyalOrder/SandierBox for an example of it in use). Wanted to get people's thoughts on what to include, etc. TheLoyalOrder (talk) 06:20, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:NewLabour Party (New Zealand)
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:NewLabour Party (New Zealand) that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Safari Scribe Edits! Talk! 17:50, 11 June 2024 (UTC)