New Zealand Senate Election, 2032

**Elections to the New Zealand Senate** were held on November 8, 2034 with 14 of the 40 seats (Class 3) in the Senate being contested in regular elections whose winners would serve six-year terms. The House elections and several gubernatorial elections, were held on the same date.

In the 2034 Senate elections, 14 of the 40 seats—all class 3 Senate seats—were contested in regular elections; the winners will serve six-year terms until January 13, 2041. Class 1 was last up for election in 2028, when Labour won a net gain of five seats.

## Seats Contested

* Bay of Plenty
* Dunedin
* Franklin
* Hutt
* Isthmus
* Manukau
* Nelson Lakes
* Northland
* Selwyn
* Tamaki
* Taranaki
* Waikato
* Wellington

## Senate Campaign

The Senate race was seen by many political experts as unexciting due to the low likelihood of change in the chamber. All but two incumbents were running for re-election and were broadly popular across the country. Polling after the Labour and National primary races in July showed that the most narrow race was in Bay of Plenty where Labour's candidate Tai Beall lead by 4.5%.

Despite a nation-wide campaign by National minority leader Judith Henry, Labour expanded it's lead in most races including Bay of Plenty where polling had Beall with a 7% lead going into October. The Labour campaign was spooked by polling Senate Majority leader Oliver Reid's Wellington Senate seat which showed Reid leading by just 6.1% over National challenger Callum Arroyo, however subsiquent polling of the electorate indicated that the poll was on outlier.

In mid-October the race saw it's first and only significant event as police announced that National incumbent Senator Cameron Welch who was up for re-election in Franklin was being investigated for bribery and corruption charges after an anonymous leak.
National minority leader Judith Henry stood behind Welch, releasing a statement saying "I have talked at length with Senator Welch today about the allegations and he has confirmed that they are false. I have complete confidence in the word of my Senator and encourage the police to investigate the matter. It will undoubtedly come to light that these accusations are nothing more untrue rumours from National's opponent's hoping to damage one of our parties talented Senators."

Welch strenuously denied the accusation until on November 4th a secret recording of meetings during which Welch insunuated he had an arrangement with an unamed business leader to pass specific legislation in return for contributions for a future Prime Ministeral run surfaced.
On November 5th National formerly reversed there endorsement of Welch however were unable to remove the party name from being next to his on the ballot. Minority leader Judith Henry called the scandal "a significant distraction" and suggested Welch should remove himself from the race despite electoral law preventing him from doing so at the time. National campaign chair Ed Jordan called the Welch scandal "exactly what we didn't need" and suggested that "this [the Welch scnadal] has really set us back, just when we were gaining ground in a couple of key race."

Senator majority leader Oliver Reid lapooned National saying, "This is typical National. They have a corrupt Senator in their midst, they may have known about it or they may not have but what's clear is this is a party has no regard for the laws of this country. So it's simple, if they can't respect the law, we can't let them control the law."

On November 7th, Welch held a press conference where he continued to deny the bribery and corruption accusations, labeling then "viscious socalist lies" and suggesting that his Labour opponent in Franklin, Fraser Bowen, was behind the accusations.

On November 9th, National leader Judith Henry announced that National would endorse Labour candidate Fraser Bowen in the Franklin Senate race, citing the accusations against Welch as the reason. Henry commented "I disagree with many of the positions taken by Mr Bowen however I believe he is the only person fit for the office of Senator for Franklin."

## Senate Results

The Senate results were all as expected based on polling and expectations going into the election.