Speaker Adrian Rurawhe will not contest seat, going list only

Speaker Adrian Rurawhe will not be standing in Te Tai Hauāuru and will go on the party list, but Soraya Peke-Mason (right) is understood to be considering her options Photo / Lewis Gardner

Speaker Adrian Rurawhe will not contest his seat of Te Tai Hauāuru at the election and has opted instead to go on the party list, following a tradition of recent speakers.

Rurawhe has represented Te Tai Hauāuru, the Māori electorate which comprises the western side of the lower North Island, since the 2014 election. Before that, it was held by Tariana Turia, the co-founder of Te Pāti Māori.

He made the announcement on iwi radio this week.

Rurawhe took over as Speaker last year after Trevor Mallard resigned from the role and left Parliament to become New Zealand’s ambassador to Ireland.

“After five months in the job of Speaker, I have come to the realisation that I can’t do justice to both [the role of Speaker and electorate MP].

It would be unfair to the constituents of Te Tai Hauāuru to carry on - so that’s the decision that I’ve made,” Rurawhe said.

Mallard was also a list MP by the time he became Speaker and his predecessor, David Carter was also a list MP. Carter’s predecessor, Lockwood Smith began his term as Speaker as an electorate MP, but later went on the party list.

The Te Tai Hauāuru seat has deep links to Labour and Te Pāti Māori. It contains Rātana Pa, the centre of the Rātana church whose alliance with Labour leader Michael Joseph Savage led to Labour winning all Māori electorates at nearly every election for more than half a century.

But the seat was also held by Turia for four terms, and is currently contested by Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer who sits in Parliament as a list MP.

Just 1052 votes separated Ngarewa-Packer from Rurawhe at the last election. Winning electorate seats is crucial for Te Pāti Māori, which has never won enough votes to get over the 5 per cent threshold and instead sits in Parliament thanks to the coat-tailing rule.

Rurawhe’s possible replacement is Soraya Peke-Mason, who sits in Parliament as a list MP.

She stood as the Labour candidate in the seat in 2011, losing to Turia. She contested the Rangitīkei electorate, the safe National general electorate seat that takes in large parts of Te Tai Hauāuru in 2020, but lost to Ian McKelvie.

Rurawhe said Peke-Mason was “considering her options”.

Peke-Mason is Rurawhe’s cousin.

“I don’t know exactly what her decision will be. She’s got a few weeks to make up her mind,” Rurawhe said.

Ultimately the decision of who becomes the candidate is up to the party and its members.