In a statement, the Electoral Commission said when reviewing the boundaries and names, the number of submissions received on any one topic is just one of the factors considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important factor guiding decision making in this case was the need to choose a set of electorate names that will last for several boundary review cycles without having to be amended,\u201d the commission said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new electorate boundaries and names are final and submissions cannot be reopened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Genter said \u201cwe\u2019ll be able to change it back\u201d after the next review, in about five years.<\/p>\n
The MP said she\u2019d spoken to many people in the electorate who were \u201cvery unhappy at the name change\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Green Party had been running a petition to \u201crestore our M\u0101ori place names\u201d which Genter said had been signed by tens of thousands of people, including those living on the Chatham Islands, who she claimed \u201cfeel excluded from the electorate\u201d due to the new name.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople from the Rongotai electorate, including the Chatham Islands, knew the name and really understood it,\u201d Genter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful M\u0101ori name that means sound or feel of the tide or the coast. I do think that was quite appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wellington Central electorate was also renamed Wellington North, which the Representation Commission\u2019s report justified by saying: \u201cIn the capital Wellington Central and Rongotai move north and west respectively. Following consideration of several objections, an area around Webb Street now no longer moves from Wellington Central to Rongotai. To more accurately reflect their current disposition and likely direction of future growth, these electorates are renamed Wellington North and Wellington Bays, respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Documents show former political adviser Neale Jones objected to retaining the name Rongotai, stating it did not reflect the geography or identity of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am open to the idea of another te reo M\u0101ori name, but do not pretend to be expert enough to suggest one,\u201d Jones said in his submission.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, one thing that does connect much of the electorate is that it is either near the coast or has a view of the coast. When you think of the area, you have Lyall Bay, Island Bay, Scorching Bay, Breaker Bay, Worser Bay, Houghton Bay, Owhiro Bay, Evans Bay and so on. Therefore I suggest the name \u201cWellington Bays\u201d for the electorate. This name evokes the identity and geography of the area,” Jones wrote.<\/p>\n
The two other submitters suggested the area be re-named \u201cSouth Wellington\u201d or \u201cWellington South\u201d.<\/p>\n
Genter said the name change that came about was not broadly consulted on, as \u201cthe Representation Commission consulted on the boundary change and keeping the name the same\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Wellington Bays electorate, formerly Rongotai, encapsulates Lyall Bay, Island Bay, Scorching Bay, Breaker Bay, Worser Bay, Houghton Bay, Evans Bay and Owhiro Bay. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Data obtained by Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act shows the Electoral Commission spent just over $1 million to deliver the 2025 electorate boundary review \u2013 which included $519,812 on specialist services and $377,627 on personnel and related costs.<\/p>\n
The cost of the 2025 boundary review was less than the 2019 one, which cost $1.35m.<\/p>\n
As of mid-August, the commission had spent $82,408 to enact the changes, including $38,969 on printing and distribution.<\/p>\n
The agency said, in its OIA response, many of the changes were technical in nature and formed part of the commission\u2019s overarching work plan for the upcoming election.<\/p>\n
Genter said it was a \u201cshock\u201d when the commission took the name change suggestion and said it was \u201cbasically only announced on the day it was gazetted, so it was too late to change it back\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe threshold should be extremely high for a name change, and in this case, it really makes no sense,\u201d Genter added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the representation commission made a huge mistake in taking the suggestion of one person to call it Wellington Bays,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The MP wrote to the chair of the representation commission on the change, showcasing signatures on a Green Party petition to keep the Rongotai title, but said she was told the names had been legally gazetted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a future consultation, probably in about five years on boundaries and names, and that will be the moment when we\u2019ll be able to change it back, unless there was an amendment to the legislation that governs this\u201d.<\/p>\n
Act MP Todd Stephenson was pleased the most recent boundary review was cheaper than its 2019 iteration.<\/p>\n
Stephenson said the commission should be congratulated for the costs, but acknowledged \u201cthere is some debate about whether they need to change the name of all electorates\u201d.<\/p>\n
Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement, the Electoral Commission said when reviewing the boundaries and names, the number of submissions received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,18316,9526,1863,7793,6186,19014,124,11557,42678,305454,305452,305,28559,14898,13457,13617,111,43,139,1536,69,1527,16402,762,305453,312,3271,52],"class_list":["post-620592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-anne","tag-another","tag-back","tag-bays","tag-changed","tag-consultation","tag-could","tag-describes","tag-electorate","tag-fulsome","tag-genter","tag-have","tag-herself","tag-julie","tag-look","tag-name","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-return","tag-reverse","tag-review","tag-rongotai","tag-says","tag-should","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}