Genter wants Rongotai restored after taxpayers fund electorate changes

Summarised by Centrist

Taxpayers have spent $82,408 implementing the latest electorate changes, while Green MP Julie Anne Genter wants Wellington Bays renamed Rongotai at the next review.

Genter cited a Green Party petition to “restore our Māori place names” and described Rongotai as “a beautiful Māori name” meaning the sound or feel of the tide or coast.

The implementation bill, recorded as of mid-August, included $38,969 for printing and distribution. The overall 2025 boundary review cost just over $1 million, compared with $1.35 million in 2019.

Those figures cover the wider review and its changes. The report does not identify the cost of renaming Rongotai specifically or what reversing it would cost.

Genter said consultation on the name was inadequate and the change came as a “shock”.

“The threshold should be extremely high for a name change, and in this case, it really makes no sense,” she said.

Only three people submitted on the electorate’s name. Former Jacinda Ardern chief of staff Neale Jones proposed Wellington Bays, arguing it reflected the area’s coastal geography. The other suggestions were South Wellington and Wellington South.

The Electoral Commission said its priority was choosing names that would “last for several boundary review cycles without having to be amended”.

“The new electorate boundaries and names are final and submissions cannot be reopened,” it said.

Genter nevertheless said “we’ll be able to change it back” at the next scheduled review, in about five years. An earlier reversal would require a legislative amendment.

Read more at The NZ Herald

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