Party challenger Tū Wyllie tipped her out of the seat in 1996, as sixty years of Labour Party control of the Māori electorates ended. In 1999 New Zealand First lost its electoral footing after an unpopular term in office, firstly as junior government-coalition partner and then following an internal split in the party, with much of the party's original parliamentary caucus leaving the party ("waka-jumping") to prop up the government of Jenny Shipley (although Wyllie himself did not join the breakaway group). Along with a drop in the New Zealand First vote from thirteen to four percent nationwide came the return of the Māori electorates to Labour and the election of Mahara Okeroa to Parliament as the Labour Party MP for Te Tai Tonga. A political difference of opinion between many Māori and the Labour Party emerged in 2004, when Helen Clark's Labour government introduced the Seabed and Foreshore Bill, claiming the coastline for the Crown and in the process providing the catalyst for the launch of the Māori Party (7 July 2004), which went on to win four of the seven Māori seats (but not the plurality of the party votes cast in those seats) at the 2005 general election. Te Tai Tonga did not form part of this electoral sea-change, with Okeroa's majority slashed from 8,000 to around 2,500 despite his facing two fewer contenders than in 2002. Rahui Katene won the electorate for the Māori Party in the , defeating the incumbent. She was defeated after a single term; Rino Tirikatene, the nephew of Tirikatene-Sullivan, won the electorate in with a margin of 1,475 votes. He was returned in the 2014 and 2017 elections with increased majorities. Members of Parliament Key List MPs Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Te Tai Tonga electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections. Election results 2020 election 2017 election 2014 election 2011 election Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 31,933 2008 election 2005 election 1999 election Refer to Candidates in the New Zealand general election 1999 by electorate#Te Tai Tonga for a list of candidates. 1996 election Notes References External links Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library Māori electorates 1996 establishments in New Zealand