Charlotte
Cook Field Correspondent
As
the election nears, people in Ashhurst have renewed rage
over being included in the Wairarapa electorate.
The
boundary changes late last year shoved the small rural town
into a region it says it has no connection
to.
Ashhurst is home to about 3,000 people, tucked
beneath the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges, nestled under the
Manawatu Gorge and wind turbines.
The village largely
considers itself an outer suburb of Palmerston North, and
has for the past 18 years voted in the Rangitīkei
electorate.
But that’s no longer the case.
In
August 2026, the Representation Commission was forced to
jiggle boundaries to reduce the number of electorates in the
lower North Island to better represent the current and
future population as required by the Electoral
Act.
Ashhurst will instead this year vote
in the Wairarapa electorate – something the population
hasn’t taken on without a fight.
“We’re a pretty noisy
community, really. We do stand up for ourselves,” local
resident Chris told RNZ.
She was one of more than 100
people who submitted against the electoral boundary change.
No other proposed change received that much
feedback.
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Despite the uproar, the Representation
Commission denied the villages pleas to stay in Rangitīkei
or be moved to Palmerston North instead.
The
commission’s chair, Judge Kevin Kelly, acknowledged the vast
feedback and said they tried, but the change couldn’t be
avoided.
This reasoning has done little to settle the
vigour of residents.
This
local really didn’t mince his words
“I think it’s a
really stupid idea. I don’t know who comes up with these
brain-dead ideas. We are in the Manawatū “
“Wairarapa
is in a different district over the other side of the ranges
and it’s a toll call away. “
Another local, Ian, said
he wasn’t happy.
“In the past we knew all the people
here and who is standing… I don’t know anybody over
there.”
Ruth said it made seeing your MP quite
difficult.
“We’d have to go to Masterton or somewhere
in the Wairarapa, and that is a long way.
“It’s over a
set of hills and it’s costly, difficult for somebody who
would have to take public transport and also expensive if
somebody had to run their car.”
Meanwhile, Angela was
struggling to reconcile the lost connection with their
neighbours over the hill.
“We’d stopped more or less
going over the hill before the
new road was built because you had to go over the
Saddle.
“Now the new road’s back in, we’ve lost
traffic coming through the village, but we have to
re-establish our connections over on the other side of the
hill.”
She
said they should be part of Palmerston North which was just
15km down the road.
Others said the electorate didn’t
faze them as long as they still got a vote.
Chris
disagrees.
“I think the person who holds that seat has
what, the Hawke’s Bay, the Wairarapa, us.
“We’re quite
a small community, so I think we’re going to get buried and
we’re not going to get heard.”
Angela warned whoever
becomes their MP will have a big job on their
hands.
“We are a small community, but he’s going to
find out we’re noisy because we don’t lie down.”
And
if their submissions are anything to go by, they’ll be
turning out in force on 7
November.
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