Election Name: | 1968 Hutt by-election |
Country: | New Zealand |
Flag Year: | 1968 |
Type: | presidential |
Previous Election: | 1966 New Zealand general election |
Previous Year: | 1966 general |
Next Election: | 1969 New Zealand general election |
Next Year: | 1969 general |
Turnout: | 12,488 (68.04%) |
Candidate1: | Trevor Young |
Party1: | New Zealand Labour Party |
Popular Vote1: | 5,968 |
Percentage1: | 47.79 |
Candidate2: | John Kennedy-Good |
Party2: | New Zealand National Party |
Popular Vote2: | 4,576 |
Percentage2: | 36.64 |
MP | |
Before Election: | Sir Walter Nash |
Before Party: | New Zealand Labour Party |
After Party: | New Zealand Labour Party |
The Hutt by-election of 1968 was a by-election for the electorate of Hutt on 3 August 1968 during the 35th New Zealand Parliament.
The by-election resulted from the death of the previous member and former prime minister Sir Walter Nash on 4 June 1968. The contest was won by Trevor Young, also of the Labour Party. The National candidate was John Kennedy-Good, a future Mayor of Lower Hutt, who had stood for National in the previous general election.
Sir Walter Nash had represented the electorate since 1929 and was still MP at the age of 86 before dying after suffering a heart attack on 4 June 1968. Nash had already announced he intended to retire at the end of the parliamentary term and Trevor Young had already been selected as his successor in the seat to contest 1969 general election.[1]
There were allegations made of bias in television coverage of the election. John Mathison, Labour MP for Avon, made a speech in parliament where he criticised the state-owned and operated New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) running a nationwide news programme featuring coverage of Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and the National candidate John Kennedy-Good. However, the programme did not feature any footage of Leader of the Opposition Norman Kirk and Labour candidate Trevor Young who held a meeting on that same day. Holyoake rejected the criticism and stated that the NZBC were under time constraints, which led them to omit filming the Labour meeting. Social Credit leader Vernon Cracknell was critical of the failure of the media to cover the Social Credit campaign, stating he believed they should be allotted the same attention that the two main parties were.[6] [7]
The following table gives the election results:
Young held the seat until its abolition in 1978. He then represented the seat of Eastern Hutt until 1990 when he retired.[8]