Wikipedia talk:WikiProject New Zealand/politics/New MPs/Archive 1

Rationale for this
Please note that the rationale for setting up these draft biographies was discussed.  Schwede 66  12:04, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Big thanks
Wow, we had pages live for all new MPs the day after the election. That's a tremendous effort. Well done, everybody!  Schwede 66  04:57, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Especially those that worked on the Green MPs - very high quality articles! Mattlore (talk) 05:46, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Purpose of this page?
Should we be only hosting links to articles in draftspace, or should it be a list of links to live articles as well? For example, does Shane Jones need to be listed here? Mattlore (talk) 01:07, 1 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Shane Jones is a complex case. I suspect he is not included here due to the fact that he used to be an MP. Chlöe Swarbrick is included here, for example.  J 947  01:43, 1 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Shane Jones is currently included on this page. However, I think articles that already exist, such as him and Swarbrick, don't need to be listed here. I think the main purpose of this page is, or was and should be again, to list draft articles that don't exist in the main space yet. Mattlore (talk) 02:21, 1 February 2017 (UTC)
 * This page is for draft articles. The purpose is explained in the second paragraph on the page.  Schwede 66  08:17, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Ok, I've had a clean up and removed links to articles in the main space. They can be found at Candidates in the New Zealand general election 2017 by electorate and the future party lists article anyway. Mattlore (talk) 22:25, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

Ilam ramblings
Interesting news in The Press today. Apparently, Councillor Raf Manji wants to take on Gerry Brownlee as an independent in. Whilst Otago University lecturer and political commentator Bryce Edwards gives Manji nil chance, I wouldn't be that sure. Manji has a massive profile in Christchurch and is the council's financial brain; he was widely expected to become deputy mayor when Vicki Buck let it known that she wouldn't have that role for another term. We'll see. Anyway, Manji meets notability criteria, as The Press has written several profile articles about him.  Schwede 66  03:09, 10 March 2017 (UTC)
 * So, Manji's candidacy has been confirmed. If history is anything to go by, he's got a steep task ahead. If I see this right, the last time that independents were successful was in, when Harry Atmore fought his last election and Clifton Webb ran as an Independent National.  Schwede 66  00:25, 11 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Actually... Tauranga by-election, 1993.  J 947  00:34, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Tidy up
What do you think about removing some of the bios from project space, i.e. deleting them? What I'm thinking of is agreeing on what should go, making a note on the project page that a bio had been drafted, before then deleting that work? If a person reaches notability, it's easy enough to undelete the draft, and it's easy enough to find the name if it's recorded on the project page.  Schwede 66  08:06, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Perhaps... I don't really see the point though.  J 947(c) (m) 19:36, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I think a tidy up should be considered after the election is complete - say around Christmas? Mattlore (talk) 20:31, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I was thinking of deleting bios from 2011 and 2014 where candidates aren't standing again in 2017.  Schwede 66  09:48, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Could you please help me by making the page about me invisible?
Hello, New Zealand Politics Task Force

I'm sorry to use this mechanism for contacting you, but I've had a bit of difficulty sorting this out.

I've been contacted by Alan Grace in the New Lynn electorate. He is very unhappy about me being represented as an MP on Wikimedia, and he is not satisfied that the article about me is signposted as a draft. He doesn't seem to be as concerned about the pages about other candidates in the NZ election - eg. Chris Penk, Nicola Willis, Erica Stanford - but it does seem to me that they would be in the same position.

Is it possible for the page about me to be taken down, or hidden from view? I appreciate that it is marked as a draft / project page, but that really doesn't seem to make a difference to Alan Grace, and he is continuing to harass me about it, to the extent of publishing a blog post about it, and e-mailing the other candidates in the New Lynn electorate.

Any assistance with this would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards, Deborah

Deborah Russell, Labour candidate for New Lynn — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.39.218 (talk) 00:52, 15 September 2017 (UTC)


 * could temporarily delete the page but it will have to be reinstated if you get elected. After that it will no longer be marked as a draft. Is that okay? Kind regards,  J 947(c) (m) 03:27, 15 September 2017 (UTC)


 * , I've hidden the relevant sections in the article. Wikipedia doesn't take sides or possess a crystal ball to foresee the election results; we're more concerned with ensuring we are not swamped with a need to create dozens of articles out of thin air on the morning of 24 September. I'm not sure why Alan Grace (or anyone) thinks the draft article's somehow your presumption, but as Wikipedia rules state that no-one should be editing their own article or any article they're otherwise associated with it is advised that if you think corrections are needed a message to this project's main talk page will suffice. Fan &#124;  talk  &#124; 02:04, 16 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Sorry, was otherwise busy this weekend. I concur with Fanx's edits; that should resolve the problem (if ever there was one).  Schwede 66  06:40, 17 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, Fran and Schwede66. I very much appreciate what you've done to help me with this. Kind regards, Deborah 122.57.39.218 (talk) 09:40, 17 September 2017 (UTC)Deborah Russell, Labour candidate for New Lynn

2017 sprint
Hello fellow editors, I sense that come Saturday, we may still have quite a few MP bios missing. Would be good to get stuck into Labour and National red links if you have some spare time. Who can lend a hand?  Schwede 66  18:42, 19 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Mainly Labour will have bios missing. I'm not very good at creating these bios so I can't help much, unfortunately.  J 947(c) (m) 19:03, 19 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Congrats everybody. We had most MP pages up by midnight on election day. There's only one that got overlooked and I moved Liz Craig to mainspace at 7am on Sunday morning. Superb effort!  Schwede 66  20:03, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Ok, make that 9am Sunday morning. Just spotted that Nicola Willis is a British athlete, and thus moved Nicola Willis (politician) into mainspace.  Schwede 66  20:13, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
 * We should keep an eye on Willis' page as it may need to be moved back if National lose a seat after special votes are counted. No guarantee it will happen this year, but it has happened to them every election since 2005. Kiwichris (talk) 08:44, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
 * With 380,000 votes still to count this is a high probability, no doubt though if that does happen, she could enter again upon retirement of another National MP during the parliamentary term. Ajf773 (talk) 09:20, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
 * The mere fact of her not getting in (if that were indeed to happen) if the preliminary results showed that she would have a seat might create enough media coverage that brings her over the GNG threshold. Somebody would have to put a bit of work into the article, though. If it looks too shaky, we'll just move it back.  Schwede 66  18:42, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I'd say keep the articles based on provisional results then move back to draftspace for anyone who has their seat overturned by special vote counts. Ajf773 (talk) 21:13, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Have moved back Willis' page as she didn't make the final cut. Kiwichris (talk) 02:26, 7 October 2017 (UTC)

2020 sprint
At our Christchurch meetup last night, we knocked out three ACT bios. I think we've got the most likely contenders covered for Saturday. If the Takanini or Taieri electorates go National's way, we aren't covered yet. Does anybody have other thoughts?  Schwede 66  18:16, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Takanini is more likely than Taieri. But neither candidate will make the list. Ajf773 (talk) 23:23, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * The thought has crossed my mind that if ACT rise a bit further in the polls, the Beth Houlbrooke article might be needed after all! Otherwise I think we're more or less covered. I don't think we're likely to need anyone else beyond 60 on Labour's list, even if they do get a high enough party vote for a majority of seats, as there are three electorate-only candidates with a good chance of winning their races (Utikere, G O'Connor, Lorck, in rough order of probability), plus Sharma may well have won Hamilton West in that scenario too.
 * It might not hurt to have Takanini or Taieri for National, just in case - the former is thought to be marginal, and obviously as a new electorate is somewhat unpredictable, while the latter has been made more competitive by the boundary changes, and perhaps also by Labour's choice of candidate. The other redlink in the National table is Wairarapa, which it may also be be a good idea to have - all the momentum seems to be with McAnulty, but it is a seat that somewhat favours National demographically, and it's hard to tell what effect Ron Mark's presence will have. If I get time in the next few days I could prepare the bare bones of those three myself.MW691 (talk) 05:23, 14 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Have created those three National drafts. I see from tonight's poll that the chances of new Green MPs have increased a bit, and hence a redlink for Teall Crossen has been added back to the page. It's probably still fairly unlikely that they'll get as many as 12 MPs, but it might not hurt to create that one. After all, with any party that has list MPs there is the possibility of people coming in off the list during the term, though that's obviously a less urgent scenario to prepare for.MW691 (talk) 07:52, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Billy TK draft
Is there any point in keeping the draft article on Billy Te Kahika in existence? It hasn't seen any substantive editing since August. Meanwhile he already has a larger mainspace article that has been regularly and comprehensively updated and expanded. In the highly unlikely event that he did become an MP, we would surely just keep using that article, rather than shift the draft one into mainspace. If he doesn't, the media attention that he's received and (sadly) the following that he's acquired would likely keep him notable anyway, so the mainspace article probably won't be going anywhere. It really seems to me that the draft is redundant and could just be deleted. MW691 (talk) 09:54, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Oh. Is there one? Not needed when we have a mainspace article. I'll nuke it.  Schwede 66  18:19, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! It had been more or less forgotten about, I think. MW691 (talk) 05:22, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Lemauga Lydia Sosene
An article for Lemauga Lydia Sosene has been created in mainspace, but she now seems to have just missed out. This of course may change with the special votes, but in the meantime what should happen to that article? MW691 (talk) 13:28, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Google, page snippets, and unintended consequences
Hi there. Today I Googled Donna Pokere-Phillips and the third result informed me, in its SERP snippet, that "Donna Pokere-Phillips is a New Zealand politician who was elected to the New Zealand parliament at the 2020 general election as the MP for Hauraki-Waikato...". She wasn't, of course, and the page was the draft set up as part of this project.

I'm assuming that it happens for other unsuccessful candidates' names as well. It undermines a lot of the great work that this project does to get timely, accurate info online. Surely there's a way to solve this?

(There are other issues with Donna Pokere-Phillips' article in particular, which I'll comment on in that page.) UPDATE, about 40 minutes later: On second thoughts I updated the article and moved into mainspace. She's running for Hamilton's mayoralty and is co-leader of the Outdoor & Freedom Party, so notable enough for sure.

Elguaponz (talk) 22:29, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I had noticed that issue before but wasn't sure how much the responsibility for that really falls to us. I had also thought about mainspacing Donna's page, so thank you for that too. --Pokelova (talk) 01:29, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi @Pokelova, since you also considered mainspacing Donna Pokere-Phillips' article you might want to join me in opposing its possible deletion. Thanks :) Elguaponz (talk) 21:25, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
 * You might want to be careful with Canvassing, User:Elguaponz.  Schwede 66  00:00, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Noted (and learning as I go). Elguaponz (talk) 04:19, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
 * And regarding the search engine indexing, I hope I've solved that problem.  Schwede 66  00:21, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Time to delete the Conservative drafts?
They're from 2014, when the New Conservative Party had half a chance. That hasn't been the case for a long time. 203.211.77.216 (talk) 09:35, 24 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I agree, but thought that we might want to give others the chance to chip in, too. I've had a look whether any of those four could possibly be notable, and that drew a blank. Although entertainingly, the National Library tells us the following about Edward Saafi: "In 2014 he stood as a Conservative Party candidate and achieved a list seat in Parliament." Yeah nah. Didn't even get close. I've written to them to let them know about that blunder.  Schwede 66  10:08, 24 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I've nuked those four drafts.  Schwede 66  06:54, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * The other draft bio that should probably go is that of Catherine Chu. A much more recent draft, but she's given up on her political career. Thoughts?  Schwede 66  07:21, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Now deleted., please note.  Schwede 66  02:29, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Electorate candidates table
, why did you delete the table? I thought it was super-useful.  Schwede 66  06:50, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * It is not exactly definitive though. I would even go so far as to say it is error ridden. West Coast-Tasman doesn't lean National, they have won it once in the last 30 years. Napier and Hutt South would realistically be under swing either way, while Hamilton East and Ōtaki are both lean National. I could go on... Kiwichris (talk) 09:05, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

Takutai Kemp
Noting that Te Pārti Māori's candidate Takutai Moana Kemp is ONZM so is likely notable enough for a page regardless of candidacy (ie one we could get out before the election, if anyone has the time, although obviously with the removal of speculative stuff). DrThneed (talk) 00:24, 29 September 2023 (UTC)


 * I suggest we don't publish before the election; it's not a good look when candidate bios get published during an election campaign.  Schwede 66  01:05, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
 * When does 'campaign' start? Andrew Hoggard was published in August, after regulated election advertising began. DrThneed (talk) 01:13, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Oh wait I missed 'official campaigning begins' on timeline. DrThneed (talk) DrThneed (talk) 01:16, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I guess we can't stop individual editors. And granted, some candidates are notable beyond doubt and could have had bios for a long time; Hoggard falls into that category.  Schwede 66  01:23, 29 September 2023 (UTC)