Upper Harbour (New Zealand electorate)

Electorate boundaries for the Upper Harbour electorate, which was first formed for the 2014 election

Upper Harbour is a parliamentary electorate in Auckland that returns one member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was first formed for the 2014 election and was won by National's Paula Bennett.

Population centres

Upper Harbour covers an area astride upper, north-western reaches of Waitemata Harbour. It stretches from Massey, in West Auckland, through West Harbour and Hobsonville, and across to Greenhithe and on to Glenfield and Unsworth Heights on the North Shore.^[1]

History

Upper Harbour was proposed in the 2013/14 electorate boundary review and confirmed by the Electoral Commission on 17 April 2014.^[2] The increase in population in the Auckland region as recorded in the 2013 census meant an extra electorate was required to keep all electorates within five percent of their quota. To accommodate an extra electorate the Electoral Commission abolished Waitakere and established two new electorates, namely Upper Harbour and Kelston.^[2]

When the draft changes to electorate boundaries were first announced, the incumbent of the Waitakere electorate, Paula Bennett, was quick to announce that she would stand in Upper Harbour instead. This was to prevent Colin Craig of the Conservative Party making a claim for the electorate, as at the time, there was speculation whether the National Party would make a deal with the Conservatives for a safe seat in line with the agreement with ACT New Zealand in the Epsom electorate.^[3] Bennett won the 2014 election with a majority of nearly 10,000 votes of Labour's Hermann Retzlaff.^[4]

The Upper Harbour and Kelston electorates will stay in place in their initial form for at least two general elections, with the first one held in 2014 and the second one expected in 2017.^[2]

Members of Parliament

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

Key   National  

Election	Winner
2014 election		Paula Bennett

As of 2014 no candidates that have contested the Upper Harbour electorate have been returned as list MPs.

Election results

2014 election

General election 2014: Upper Harbour[4]
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Paula Bennett		18,315	55.95		20,853	54.25
	Labour	Hermann Retzlaff		8,623	26.34		4,965	23.36
	Green	Nicholas Mayne		2,619	8.00		2,329	6.97
	Conservative	Callum Blair		1,839	5.61		1,613	4.82
	ACT	Stephen Berry		549	1.67		450	1.34
	Māori	Hinurewa Te Hau		246	0.75		119	0.35
	Mana Party	Makelesi Ngata		204	0.62
	NZ First						2,311	6.91
	Internet Mana						432	0.85
	Legalise Cannabis						129	0.38
	United Future						69	0.20
	Civilian						14	0.04
	Ban 1080						13	0.03
	Independent Coalition						7	0.02
	Focus						4	0.01
	Democrats						4	0.01
Informal votes				338			130
Total Valid votes				32,733			33,403
Turnout				33,420	73.42[5]
	National hold		Majority	18,315	55.95

References

1. McQuillan, Laura; Marwick, Felix (21 November 2013). "Sweeping changes to electorates". Newstalk ZB. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
2. "New electorate boundaries finalised". Electoral Commission. 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
3. Small, Vernon (22 November 2013). "Bennett won't make way for Craig". The Dominion Post (Fairfax New Zealand). Archived from the original on 9 June 2014.
4. "Official Count Results – Upper Harbour". Electoral Commission. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
5. "2014 General Election Voter Turnout Statistics – Upper Harbour". Electoral Commission. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.