Profile: Te Tai Hauāuru electorate

The church at Ratana. Photo / File

Te Tai Hauāuru electorate is one of New Zealand's youngest electorates, but it's barely recognisable from the electorate that was first established in 1996.

Back then, the electorate - one of seven Māori seats - took in the area from south Auckland to Te Kūiti. Since the creation of the Tāmaki Makaurau seat in 1999 and the Tainui seat in 2002, Te Tai Hauāuru has gradually edged southwards.

These days its northern boundary is just north of Ōtorohanga; its eastern boundary runs just west of Rotorua, skirts Lake Taupō, through Tongariro National Park and along the Ruahine and Tararua ranges; its southern boundary is at Tawa, north of Wellington; and its western boundary is the west coast.

Te Tai Hauāuru's major settlements are New Plymouth, Whanganui and Palmerston North. The seat of the influential Ratana Church is based in the electorate, at Ratana, just south of Whanganui. The electorate includes three national parks - Egmont, Whanganui and Tongariro - and the four major North Island mountains of Taranaki, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro.

The seat covers the rohe (tribal areas) of Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Maru (Taranaki), Te Āti Awa, Taranaki, Ngā Ruahine, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Hauiti, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kauwhata, Rangitāne, Muaūpoko, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Huia.

Area of Te Tai Hauauru.

Te Tai Hauāuru's very first MP was Tuku Morgan from New Zealand First, a party that had a clean sweep of the Māori seats in 1996. In 1999, Labour's Nanaia Mahuta won the seat. She left in 2002 to contest the Tainui seat, and so began the reign of the electorate's longest-serving MP to date: Dame Tariana Turia. She represented first the Labour Party then, when she left the Labour Party, she took the seat again for the Māori Party in the 2004 by-election.

Mrs Turia had a stranglehold on Te Tai Hauāuru until her retirement from politics in 2014. She consistently gained twice as many votes (or even more) than her nearest rival. Labour's Soraya Peke-Mason was her closest contender, 3000 votes behind Mrs Turia at the 2011 election.

In 2014, the seat returned to the Labour Party with the election of Adrian Rurawhe, who defeated Chris McKenzie from the Māori Party.

This year, the Māori Party's Howie Tamati, a former New Plymouth District councillor, will be Mr Rurawhe's main challenger for the seat in the September 23 election. Jack McDonald from the Greens will contest the seat for the third election in a row. No other parties have announced candidates in Te Tai Hauāuru yet.

In the past few years, Māoridom has received a financial boost in several Treaty settlements within the electorate, notably the $80 million Whanganui River Settlement and the more than $60 million to South Taranaki's Ngā Ruahine. Despite this, poverty, housing, inequality and unemployment are likely to be hot topics this election, as in all the Māori seats.

Mining could also be a talking point in Te Tai Hauāuru in the build-up to the election. The Environmental Protection Agency recently granted Trans Tasman Resources the right to mine iron sands off the coast of Patea, a decision greeted with widespread anger. Two South Taranaki iwi, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngā Rauru, have indicated they may challenge the decision.

Te Tai Hauāuru voters may also be considering the future of the Māori seats themselves. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters - who many are picking to be a kingmaker after the election - has made it clear that a binding referendum on whether the Māori seats should be abolished would be a dealbreaker for any coalition talks after the election.