Besides Wellington, the main centres in Te Tai Tonga are Nelson, Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Queenstown, and Invercargill.

Te Tai Tonga's size was marginally decreased after a review of boundaries in 2007, when the suburbs of Naenae and Taitā were moved into Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.

[3] The main iwi of Te Tai Tonga are Ngāi Tahu/Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha, and in the North Island, Te Āti Awa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Ngāti Poneke,[4] that latter of which is not iwi in the traditional sense, but an urban pan-tribal grouping.

Whetū Tirikatene-Sullivan had served as Southern Maori's representative in Parliament since 1967—during the terms of five different governments and nine Prime Ministers.

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 2008 election, defeating the incumbent.

[5] She was defeated after a single term; Rino Tirikatene, the nephew of Tirikatene-Sullivan, won the electorate in 2011 with a margin of 1,475 votes.

[7] Key NZ First   Labour   Te Pāti Māori   Green Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Te Tai Tonga electorate.

Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent.

Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent.