includes Hamilton and Papakura Ikaroa-Rāwhiti – East and South North Island, includes Gisborne and Masterton Tāmaki Makaurau – Roughly equivalent to greater Auckland Te Tai Hauāuru – Western North Island, includes Taranaki and Manawatū-Whanganui regions Te Tai Tokerau – Northernmost seat, includes Whangārei and North and West Auckland Te Tai Tonga – All of South Island and nearby islands. Largest electorate by area Waiariki – Includes Tauranga, Whakatāne, Rotorua, Taupo While seven out of 72 (9.7%) does not nearly reflect the proportion of voting-age New Zealanders who identify as being of Māori descent (about 14.8%), many Māori choose to enroll in general electorates, so the proportion reflects the proportion of voters on the Māori roll. For maps showing broad electoral boundaries, see selected links to individual elections at New Zealand elections. Former Māori Party co-leader Pita Sharples proposed the creation of an additional electorate, for Māori living in Australia, where there are between 115,000 and 125,000 Māori, the majority living in Queensland. Party politics As Māori electorates originated before the development of political parties in New Zealand, all early Māori MPs functioned as independents. When the Liberal Party formed, however, Māori MPs began to align themselves with the new organisation, with either Liberal candidates or Liberal sympathisers as representatives. Māori MPs in the Liberal Party included James Carroll, Āpirana Ngata and Te Rangi Hīroa. There were also Māori MPs in the more conservative and rural Reform Party; Maui Pomare, Taurekareka Henare and Taite Te Tomo. Since the Labour Party first came to power in 1935, however, it has dominated the Māori electorates. For a long period this dominance owed much to Labour's alliance with the Rātana Church, although the Rātana influence has diminished in recent times. In the 1993 election, however, the new New Zealand First party, led by Winston Peters – who himself held the general seat of Tauranga from 1984 to 2005 – gained the Northern Māori seat (electing Tau Henare to Parliament), and in the 1996 election New Zealand First captured all the Māori electorates for one electoral term. Labour regained the electorates in the following election in the 1999 election. A development of particular interest to Māori came in 2004 with the resignation of Tariana Turia from her ministerial position in the Labour-dominated coalition and from her Te Tai Hauāuru parliamentary seat. In the resulting by-election on 10 July 2004, standing under the banner of the