Port Hills (New Zealand electorate)

Port Hills electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

Port Hills is a parliamentary electorate of New Zealand created for the 2008 general election. Ruth Dyson of the Labour Party had previously held the Banks Peninsula electorate since the 1999 election that was largely replaced by Port Hills, and Dyson is to this day the area's representative. The Port Hills electorate is mostly urban, and lost the more rural Banks Peninsula areas of the old electorate to the Selwyn electorate that was also formed for the 2008 election.

Population centres

Port Hills was created after a review of electoral boundaries conducted in the wake of the 2006 census of population and dwellings. The bulk of Port Hills comes from the old Banks Peninsula electorate, including the suburbs of Opawa and Woolston, the suburban areas around the Cashmere Hills, and the towns on the north coast of Lyttelton Harbour. The south Christchurch suburbs of Bromley and Sydenham have been added from Christchurch East and Wigram, respectively. Most of the electorate is urban.^[1]

The following suburbs, in alphabetical order, are at least partially located in the electorate: Balmoral Hill, Beckenham, Bromley, Cashmere, Cass Bay, Clifton, Corsair Bay, Ferrymead, Governors Bay, Heathcote Valley, Hillsborough, Huntsbury, Linwood, Lyttelton, Moncks Bay, Moncks Spur, Mount Pleasant, Murray Aynsley Hill, Opawa, Rapaki, Redcliffs, Richmond Hill, Scarborough, St Andrews Hill, St Martins, Sumner, Sydenham, Taylors Mistake, Waltham, and Woolston.^[2]

Port Hills was one of the electorates worst affected by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and suffered minor population loss as a result. The 2013 redistribution has resulted in the electorate losing the areas around Bromley and Sydenham but regaining Halswell back from Selwyn.^[1][3][4]

History

Because the new suburbs are strong Labour-voting areas, Banks Peninsula MP Ruth Dyson retained the electorate despite a nationwide swing to the National Party in 2008. This is also one of the electorates which elected a Labour MP but where the National Party won the party vote.^[5] National's candidate in 2008 was Terry Heffernan (1952–2010), who at that time was already weakened by cancer.^[6]

In the 2011 election, Dyson contested the electorate against David Carter.^[7] Dyson and Carter had contested before; in 1993, Dyson was successful in the Lyttelton electorate, but in 1996 in Banks Peninsula, Carter had the upper hand. In 1999, 2002, and 2005, Dyson was always in first place, and she was again successful in 2011.^[7]

In the 2014 election, the National Party put up Nuk Korako against Dyson;^[8] Carter had in the meantime been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives and as such, was not contesting an electorate any longer.^[9] Based on preliminary counts, Dyson has a majority of 1,865 votes over Korako.^[8]

Members of Parliament

Key

  Labour     National     NZ First     Green  

Election	Winner
2008 election		Ruth Dyson
2011 election
2014 election

List MPs

Election	Winner
2011 election		David Carter
		Denis O'Rourke
2014 election		Nuk Korako
		Eugenie Sage
		Denis O'Rourke

Election results

2014 election

General election 2014: Port Hills[10]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Ruth Dyson		18,161	46.44	−1.97	9,514	23.87	−3.77
	National	Nuk Korako		15,933	40.74	+1.85	18,719	46.96	+3.30
	Green	Eugenie Sage		3,059	7.82	−2.18	6,812	17.09	−2.51
	NZ First	Denis O'Rourke		1,131	2.89	+0.75	2,641	6.62	+1.79
	Conservative	Chris Brosnan		626	1.60	+1.60	1,241	3.11	+1.46
	ACT	Geoff Russell		145	0.37	−0.18	175	0.44	−0.30
	Democrats	Gary J Gribben		52	0.13	+0.13	41	0.10	+0.04
	Internet Mana						298	0.75	+0.44[lower-alpha 1]
	Māori						160	0.40	−0.01
	Legalise Cannabis						120	0.30	−0.19
	United Future						80	0.20	−0.27
	Ban 1080						33	0.08	+0.08
	Civilian						26	0.07	+0.07
	Focus						4	0.01	+0.01
	Independent Coalition						1	0.00	+0.00
Informal votes				277			105
Total Valid votes				39,384			39,970
Turnout				39,970	81.29	+4.80
	Labour hold		Majority	2,228	5.70	−3.83

2011 election

General election 2011: Port Hills[7]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Ruth Dyson		15,737	48.41	+1.69	9,199	27.64	−10.04
	National	David Carter		12,640	38.89	+1.74	14,532	43.66	+6.53
	Green	Joseph Burston		3,252	10.00	+0.39	6,522	19.60	+5.82
	NZ First	Denis O'Rourke		697	2.14	+2.14	1,609	4.83	+2.08
	ACT	Geoff Russell		179	0.55	−0.84	246	0.74	−1.63
	Conservative						549	1.65	+1.65
	Legalise Cannabis						164	0.49	+0.07
	United Future						157	0.47	−0.42
	Māori						135	0.41	−0.28
	Mana						102	0.31	+0.31
	Alliance						24	0.07	−0.07
	Libertarianz						22	0.07	+0.02
	Democrats						21	0.06	+0.02
Informal votes				542			202
Total Valid votes				32,505			33,282
	Labour hold		Majority	3,097	9.53	−0.05

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 43,511^[11]

2008 election

General election 2008: Port Hills[5]
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	%	±%
	Labour	Ruth Dyson		16,834	46.72		13,816	37.68
	National	Terry Heffernan		13,382	37.14		13,614	37.13
	Green	Joseph Burston		3,464	9.61		5,051	13.78
	Progressive	Phil Clearwater		1,144	3.18		958	2.61
	ACT	Geoff Russell		500	1.39		868	2.37
	Kiwi	Wilton Gray		337	0.94		285	0.78
	United Future	Robin Andrew Loomes		215	0.60		326	0.89
	Alliance	Andrew John McKenzie		153	0.42		51	0.14
	NZ First						1,009	2.75
	Māori						250	0.68
	Legalise Cannabis						155	0.42
	Bill and Ben						152	0.41
	Family Party						49	0.13
	Pacific						23	0.06
	Workers Party						19	0.05
	Libertarianz						17	0.05
	Democrats						14	0.04
	RONZ						4	0.01
	RAM						2	0.01
Informal votes				301			132
Total Valid votes				36,029			36,663
Turnout				36,795	82.88
	Labour win new seat		Majority	3,452

Table footnotes

1. 2014 Internet Mana swing is relative to the votes for Mana in 2011; it shared a party list with Internet in the 2014 election.

References

1. Young, Rachel (19 April 2014). "Wagner vows to fight for 'unwinnable' electorate". The Press. p. A7. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
2. "Electorate Boundaries". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
3. "Port Hills: Electoral Profile". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
4. Report of the Representation Commission 2014 (PDF). Representation Commission. 4 April 2014. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
5. "Official Count Results -- Port Hills". Chief Electoral Office. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
6. Espiner, Colin (25 March 2008). "It's Beaurepaires at Parliament as retreads rolled out". The Press. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
7. "Official Count Results -- Port Hills (2011)". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
8. Mathewson, Nicole; Stylianou, Georgina; Fulton, Tim (20 September 2014). "Labour's Dyson keeps Port Hills". The Press. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
9. "PM announces changes to Cabinet line-up" (Press release). The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (of New Zealand). 22 January 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
10. "Official Count Results -- Port Hills (2014)". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
11. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.

External links

• Port Hills Pulse website Labour party electorate website.
• Electorate Map from Elections NZ