Mount Albert (New Zealand electorate)

Mount Albert shown as part of Auckland

Mount Albert is a Parliamentary electorate in Auckland, New Zealand, returning one Member of Parliament (MP) to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It has been represented by David Shearer since a by-election on 13 June 2009. It was represented by Helen Clark from the 1981 general election until her resignation from Parliament on 17 April 2009. It has elected only Labour Party MPs since it was first contested at the 1946 election.

Mount Albert covers a segment of western Auckland City, based around the suburb of Mount Albert and stretching from Kingsland on the eastern periphery of the central city down to Sandringham and extending as far as Avondale on the seat's western edge. Changes brought about by an electoral redistribution after the 2006 census saw a swap of suburbs with neighbouring Auckland Central – Newton on the city fringe being returned to Auckland Central, having been moved out in 1999, and Point Chevalier being drafted in.

The present incarnation of Mount Albert dates to 1999, when the creation of the Mount Roskill seat necessitated removing the suburbs clustered around the north side of Manukau Harbour from the Owairaka electorate. The name Mount Albert had been out of use for only three years – before Owairaka was drawn up ahead of the change to Mixed Member Proportional voting in 1996, the Mount Albert electorate had been part of the New Zealand electoral landscape for fifty years.

Mount Albert is notable for being contested by two Prime Ministers. Helen Clark was MP from 1981 until 2009, when she resigned to become head of the United Nations Development Program, and was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2008. Sir Robert Muldoon of the National Party, Prime Minister from 1975 to 1984, first stood for Parliament in Mount Albert in 1954, to try to claim the seat from Labour. No National Party candidate has managed to do what Sir Robert could not – Mount Albert's inner-suburb, working-class composition makes it one of the Labour Party's safest seats.

Members of Parliament

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office	Reason
Arthur Shapton Richards	Labour	1946	1947	Died
Warren Freer	Labour	1947 by-election, 1949, 1951, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1978	1981	Retired
Helen Clark	Labour	1981, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1993	1996	Electorate abolished; contested Owairaka instead
Helen Clark	Labour	1999, 2002, 2005, 2008	17 April 2009	Resigned
David Shearer	Labour	2009 byelection	Incumbent

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Mt Albert
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y David Shearer		18,716	59.19	-0.10	12,238	37.09	-5.51
	National	Melissa Lee		8,695	27.50	-1.35	12,102	36.67	+1.01
	Green	David Clendon		3,000	9.49	+3.55	5,660	17.15	+6.15
	Conservative	Frank Poching		786	2.49	+2.49	532	1.61	+1.61
	ACT	Stephen Boyle		425	1.34	-2.75	306	0.93	-2.58
	NZ First						1,494	4.53	+1.85
	Mana						191	0.58	-+0.58
	Māori						172	0.52	-0.26
	Legalise Cannabis						135	0.41	+0.12
	United Future						114	0.35	-0.32
	Libertarianz						29	0.09	+0.04
	Alliance						21	0.06	+0.01
	Democrats						5	0.02	-0.005
Informal votes				969			272
Total Valid votes				31,622			32,999
	Labour hold		Majority	10,021	31.69	+1.24

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 45,208

2009 by-election

Main article: Mount Albert by-election, 2009

Mount Albert by-election, 2009
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the by-election. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list prior to the by-election. Yellow background denotes the winner of the by-election, who was a list MP prior to the by-election. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Shearer	13,260	63.49	+4.20
	National	Melissa Leea	3,542	16.96	-11.88
	Green	Russel Normana	2,567	12.29	+6.35
	ACT	John Boscawena	968	4.63	+0.54
	Bill and Ben	Ben Boyce	158	0.76
	Legalise Cannabis	Dakta Green	92	0.44
	Kiwi	Simonne Dyer	91	0.44
	United Future	Judy Turner	89	0.43
	Libertarianz	Julian Pistorius	39	0.19
	Independent	Jim Bagnell	24	0.11
	Independent	Ari Baker	15	0.07
	Human Rights	Anthony Van den Heuvel	13	0.06
	People Before Profit	Malcom France	13	0.06
	Independent	Jackson James Wood	9	0.04
	People's Choice	Rusty Kane	5	0.02
Informal votes			58
Total Valid votes			20,885
	Labour hold	Majority	9,718	46.40	+4.02

^a Three candidates were list MPs elected at the 2008 election.

2008 election

General Election 2008: Mount Albert
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Helen Elizabeth Clark		20,157	59.29	-7.26	14,894	42.60	-11.73
	National	Ravi Musuku		9,806	28.84	+9.21	12,468	35.66	+9.31
	Green	Jon Carapiet		2,019	5.94	+1.22	3,846	11.00	+1.73
	ACT	Kathleen McCabe		1,392	4.09	+1.72	1,227	3.51	+1.49
	Kiwi	Christian Dawson		249	0.73		157	0.45
	Pacific	Milo Siilata		234	0.69		273	0.78
	Human Rights	Anthony van Den Heuvel		87	0.26
	RONZ	Dave Llewell		53	0.16	+0.16	16	0.05	+0.03
	NZ First						936	2.68	-0.70
	Māori						273	0.78	-0.26
	Progressive						244	0.70
	United Future						232	0.66
	Bill and Ben						132	0.38
	Legalise Cannabis						101	0.29
	Family Party						92	0.26
	Alliance						19	0.05
	RAM						19	0.05
	Libertarianz						16	0.05
	Workers Party						11	0.03
	Democrats						7	0.02
Informal votes				410			256
Total Valid votes				33,997			34,963
	Labour hold		Majority	10,351

2005 election

General Election 2005: Mount Albert
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	%	±%
	Labour	Y Helen Clark		20,918	66.55	-3.03	17,501	54.33
	National	Ravi Musuku		6,169	19.63		8,488	26.35
	Green	Jon Carapiet		1,485	4.72		2,985	9.27
	NZ First	Julian Batchelor		746	2.37		1,089	3.38
	ACT	David Seymour		746	2.37		651	2.02
	United Future	Tony Gordon		529	1.68		649	2.01
	Progressive	Jenny Wilson		407	1.29		525	1.59
	Destiny	Anne Williamson		337	1.07		157	0.49
	Independent	James Bagnall		83	0.26
	Anti-Capitalist	Daphna Whitmore		79	0.25	-0.16
	Independent	Anthony Ravlich		47	0.15
	Direct Democracy	Howard Ponga		30	0.10		10	0.03
	Independent	Erik Taylor		29	0.09
	Māori						168	0.52
	Legalise Cannabis						43	0.13
	Christian Heritage						40	0.12
	Alliance						22	0.07
	Family Rights						20	0.06
	Libertarianz						19	0.06
	RONZ						8	0.02
	99 MP						6	0.02
	Democrats						3	0.01
	One NZ						0	0.00
Informal votes				316			130
Total Valid votes				31,747			32,342
	Labour hold		Majority	14,749

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library