Southland (New Zealand electorate)


Southland is an electorate to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was first created for the 2020 New Zealand general election.

Population centres

Despite its name, the electorate straddles the border between the Southland and Otago regions. It is one of New Zealand's largest electorates and is predominantly rural in nature. The electorate includes Gore, Winton, Mataura, Alexandra, Arrowtown, Queenstown and Te Anau, and much of Fiordland National Park.

History

It was created at the 2020 redistribution after the Clutha region was moved out of the former electorate of Clutha-Southland. It was made up of the bulk of Clutha-Southland, plus another area around Alexandra that had been moved in from. It was initially proposed to move Winton and The Catlins into, but after a public consultation process they remained in Southland, which instead shed a large area in West Southland around Tuatapere.