Helensville (New Zealand electorate)

Helensville is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Helensville is John Key, leader of the National Party and Prime Minister of New Zealand. He has held this electorate since 2002. The electorate was created in 2002, but there was an earlier Helensville electorate from 1978 to 1984.

Population centres

Helensville covers an area of the rapidly growing northern Auckland urban fringe, drawing Helensville and Kumeu from Rodney District, moving south to take in Paremoremo, Greenhithe and Albany from North Shore City, and finally tacking west to include Whenuapai, Hobsonville and West Harbour from Waitakere City.

History

John Key's electorate office

The electorate was promulgated in time for the 2002 election, and is the second general electorate created since the introduction of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting, in reaction to continued high population growth in and around Auckland. It was made by cutting off the northern flank of the electorate of Waitakere and adding in areas from the electorate of Rodney around its southern boundary. Its only MP has been the current Prime Minister, John Key, who beat sitting Waitakere MP Brian Neeson to the nomination, and in a tight year for his party, won the electorate by 1,705 votes in a split field when a disgruntled Neeson chose to stand as an independent. Helensville is partly rural, and wealthy beyond the national average, making it a safe National electorate, and the results in 2002 notwithstanding, Key was returned easily in 2005, 2008 and 2011 with large majorities.

Members of Parliament

Key

  National     NZ First     Labour     ACT     Green  

Election	Winner
1978 election		Dail Jones
1981 election
electorate abolished
2002 election		John Key
2005 election
2008 election
2011 election

List MPs

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Helensville electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

Election	Winner
2002 election		Dail Jones
2008 election		Darien Fenton
		David Garrett1
2009		David Clendon2

¹ Garrett resigned in September 2010, and his list position was taken by Hilary Calvert
² Clendon entered Parliament in October 2009 following the resignation of Sue Bradford

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Helensville
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	John Key		26,011	74.38	+0.77	23,558	65.79	+2.09
	Labour	Jeremy Greenbrook-Held		4,945	14.14	-2.97	5,138	14.35	-4.11
	Green	Jeanette Elley		2,575	7.36	+1.41	3,094	8.64	+3.74
	Conservative	Richard Drayson		941	2.69	+2.69	1,258	3.51	+3.51
	Legalise Cannabis	Adrian McDermott		319	0.91	+0.91	174	0.49	+0.16
	ACT	Nick Kearney		180	0.51	0-1.72	499	1.39	-5.31
	NZ First						1,648	4.60	+2.06
	Māori						186	0.52	+0.03
	United Future						163	0.46	-0.33
	Mana						60	0.17	+0.17
	Libertarianz						19	0.05	-0.004
	Democrats						8	0.02	+0.001
	Alliance						4	0.01	-0.04
Informal votes				574			198
Total Valid votes				34,971			35,809
	National hold		Majority	21,066	60.24	+3.74

Electorate (as at 11 November 2011): 46,983

2008 election

General Election 2008: Helensville
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y John Key		26,771	73.61	+9.51	23,559	63.69	+8.60
	Labour	Darien Fenton		6,224	17.11	-9.77	6,826	18.45	-9.52
	Green	David Clendon		2,166	5.96	+5.79	1,814	4.90	+0.87
	ACT	David Garrett		811	2.23	+1.10	2,481	6.71	+4.36
	United Future	Angela Lovelock		309	0.85	-0.82	289	0.78	-1.69
	Libertarianz	Peter Osborne		89	0.24		21	0.06	+0.01
	NZ First						940	2.54	-3.34
	Progressive						195	0.53	-0.28
	Family Party						182	0.49
	Māori						182	0.49	+0.08
	Bill and Ben						170	0.46
	Legalise Cannabis						131	0.35	+0.16
	Kiwi						105	0.28
	Pacific						45	0.12
	Alliance						19	0.05	+0.02
	Workers Party						9	0.02
	Democrats						8	0.02	±0.00
	RAM						8	0.02
	RONZ						4	0.01	±0.00
Informal votes				251			110
Total Valid votes				36,370			36,988
Turnout				37,298	82.27	-0.58
	National hold		Majority	20,547	56.49

2005 election

General Election 2005: Hellensville
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y John Key		22,008	64.10	+29.92	19,224	55.09	+29.28
	Labour	Judy Lawley		9,230	26.88	-0.24	9761	27.97	-2.86
	NZ First	Dail Jones		1,400	4.08	-5.45	2051	5.88	-6.06
	United Future	Andrea Deeth		573	1.67	-2.47	863	2.47	-5.82
	ACT	Stephen Langford-Tebby		389	1.13		821	2.35	-10.26
	Māori	Awa Hudson		359	1.05		142	0.41
	Progressive	Julian Aaron		318	0.93	-0.02	218	0.81	-0.08
	Green	Helen Koster		58	0.17		1407	4.03	-1.99
	Destiny						151	0.43
	Legalise Cannabis						66	0.19	-0.21
	Christian Heritage						48	0.14	-0.85
	Libertarianz						16	0.05
	Direct Democracy						11	0.03
	Alliance						9	0.03	-1.00
	Democrats						8	0.02
	Family Rights						8	0.02
	99 MP						5	0.01
	RONZ						5	0.01
	One NZ						4	0.01	-0.04
Informal votes				253			110
Total Valid votes				34,335			34,896
Turnout				35,222	82.85	+3.21
	National hold		Majority	12,778	37.22	+31.26

2002 election

General Election 2002: Helensville
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 Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	John Key		9,775	34.18		7,524	25.81
	Labour	Gary Russell		8,070	28.21		8,988	30.83
	Independent	Brian Neeson		5,644	19.73
	NZ First	Dail Jones		2,725	9.53		3,481	11.94
	United Future	Andrea Deeth		1,184	4.14		2,416	8.29
	Alliance	Helen MacKinlay		581	2.03		299	1.03
	Christian Heritage	David Simpkin		350	1.22		288	0.99
	Progressive	Clare Dickson		273	0.95		272	0.93
	ACT						3,676	12.61
	Green						1,755	6.02
	ORNZ						313	1.07
	Legalise Cannabis						118	0.40
	One NZ						15	0.05
	Mana Māori						10	0.03
	NMP						2	0.01
Informal votes				327			78
Total Valid votes				28,602			29,157
Turnout				29,428	79.64
	National win new seat		Majority	1,705	5.96

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library