Sat 8 Nov 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
10.50PM: With Labour leader and committed advocate for glbt equality Helen Clark conceding the general election to National's John Key minutes ago, the glbt community will still be represented by six openly gay and lesbian MPs, with two being new to the House. New Rainbow Labour MP Grant Robertson Ex NZ AIDS Foundation chief Kevin Hague has won a first-time seat in Parliament on the Green Party list, with the Greens polling 6.4% of the total party vote. Labour’s longest-serving gay MP Chris Carter has romped home in Te Atatu, with 5,000 more votes than National’s Tau Henare with 93% of the vote counted. New gay candidate Grant Robertson has comfortably won the Wellington Central seat, beating National’s Stephen Franks by 1,500 votes on final count. National's only openly gay candidate Christopher Finlayson has lost the Rongotai electorate by 9,300 to Labour's Annette King who won convincingly with over 17,000 votes. Finlayson will definitely be back in Parliament however, at number 14 on National's list. New gay Green MP Kevin Hague After a tight race in Ohariu, United Future leader Peter Dunne has taken the seat, with Labour’s Charles Chauvel getting just 1,000 fewer votes on the final count. At 27th place on Labour's list Chauvel will still be back in Parliament. National's anti-gay Nick Smith has beaten lesbian Labour candidate Maryan Street in Nelson by over 8,000 votes, but Street will also be back in Parliament, given her high placing at number 9 on her party's list. Louisa Wall's 4,500 votes in the Maori seat of Tamaki Makaurau, where the vote is all but complete, pale against Pita Sharples' 10,000 votes. Lesbian sportperson Wall, a late-comer to Parliament in the last term, is a significant glbt casualty of election night. At number 43 on the list she is extremely unlikely to return to Parliament. In a surprise final result, in Auckland Cental, the nation's gayest electorate, National's Nikki Kaye has won over the electorate's long-serving MP Judith Tizard, by a slim 1,181 margin. At number 38 on Labour's list, Tizard will not return to the house. In summary, the new openly glbt MPs for the coming Parliamentary term are Chris Carter (Labour) Charles Chauvel (Labour) Christopher Finlayson (National) Kevin Hague (Green) Grant Robertson (Labour) Maryan Street (Labour) The number of openly glbt MPs therefore remains six, the same as it was for the last term. Helen Clark has announced she is stepping down from leadership of the Labour party, ending an era during which the nation's most powerful politician was clearly and publicly attuned to the needs of glbt New Zealanders.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 8th November 2008 - 11:00pm