Upper Harbour (New Zealand electorate)
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. The seat was won by National's Paula Bennett in both the 2014 and 2017 election.

Population centres
Upper Harbour covers an area astride upper, north-western reaches of Waitematā 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] A small portion of the electorate around Tihema Stream was moved to the new electorate of Kaipara ki Mahurangi in the 2020 redistribution.[3]
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.[4] Bennett won the 2014 election with a majority of nearly 10,000 votes of Labour's Hermann Retzlaff.[5]
Members of Parliament
Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.
Key National
Election | Winner | |
---|---|---|
2014 election | Paula Bennett | |
2017 election |
As of 2017 no candidates that have contested the Upper Harbour electorate have been returned as list MPs.
Election results
2017 election
2017 general election: Upper Harbour[6] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: |
Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
| ||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party votes | % | ±% | ||
National | ![]() |
19,857 | 55.43 | -0.52 | 19,722 | 54.03 | -0.22 | ||
Labour | Jin An | 10,301 | 28.75 | +2.41 | 11,793 | 32.31 | +8.95 | ||
Green | James Goodhue | 2,688 | 7.5 | -0.5 | 1,484 | 4.07 | -2.9 | ||
NZ First | Jane Johnston | 2,192 | 6.12 | — | 2,092 | 5.73 | -1.18 | ||
ACT | Bruce Haycock | 358 | 1 | -0.67 | 246 | 0.67 | -0.76 | ||
Opportunities | 597 | 1.64 | — | ||||||
New Conservative | 144 | 0.39 | -4.43 | ||||||
Māori | 112 | 0.31 | -0.44 | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 88 | 0.24 | -0.14 | ||||||
People's Party | 25 | 0.07 | — | ||||||
Mana | 24 | 0.07 | -0.78[lower-alpha 1] | ||||||
United Future | 21 | 0.06 | -0.14 | ||||||
Internet | 14 | 0.04 | -0.81[lower-alpha 2] | ||||||
Outdoors | 11 | 0.03 | — | ||||||
Ban 1080 | 9 | 0.02 | -0.01 | ||||||
Democrats | 6 | 0.02 | +0.01 | ||||||
Informal votes | 429 | 114 | |||||||
Total Valid votes | 35,825 | 36,502 | |||||||
National hold | Majority | 9,556 | 26.67 | -2.94 |
2014 election
2014 general election: Upper Harbour[5] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: |
Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
| ||||||||
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 | — | ||
New 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[7] | — | ||||||
National win new seat | Majority | 9,692 | 29.61 |
Notes
- 2017 Mana Party swing is relative to the votes for Internet-Mana in 2014; it shared a party list with the Internet Party in the 2014 election
- 2017 Internet Party swing is relative to the votes for Internet-Mana in 2014; it shared a party list with Mana Party in the 2014 election
References
- McQuillan, Laura; Marwick, Felix (21 November 2013). "Sweeping changes to electorates". Newstalk ZB. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- "New electorate boundaries finalised". Electoral Commission. 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- "Report of the Representation Commission 2020" (PDF). 17 April 2020.
- 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. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
- "Official Count Results – Upper Harbour". Electoral Commission. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- "Official Count Results -- Upper Harbour". Wellington: New Zealand Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- "2014 General Election Voter Turnout Statistics – Upper Harbour". Electoral Commission. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
External links
- Upper Harbour electorate profile, New Zealand Parliament