Banks Peninsula (New Zealand electorate)

Banks Peninsula is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate which initially existed from 1996 to 2008, and was later recreated in 2020 ahead of the 2020 election.^[1] It was held by National's David Carter for the initial term, and then by Labour's Ruth Dyson from 1999 to 2008.^[2] As of 2023, the seat is currently held by National's Vanessa Weenink.

Banks Peninsula
Single-member general constituency for the New Zealand House of Representatives
Formation	1996, 2020
Region	Canterbury
Character	Rural and suburban
Term	3 years
Member for Banks Peninsula
Vanessa Weenink since 14 October 2023
Party	National
List MPs	Lan Pham (Green) Laura Trask (ACT) Tracey McLellan (Labour)
Previous MP	Tracey McLellan (Labour)
Party vote distribution

Population centres

The Banks Peninsula electorate, as defined in 2020, includes some of southern Christchurch, with suburbs such as Oaklands, Somerfield, Cashmere, Woolston, Halswell, Heathcote, and Sumner. It also includes some towns immediately south of Christchurch such as Lyttelton, and all of Banks Peninsula itself including the town of Akaroa.

History

The 1996 election was notable for the significant change of electorate boundaries, based on the provisions of the Electoral Act 1993.^[3] Because of the introduction of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system, the number of electorates had to be reduced, leading to significant changes. More than half of the electorates contested in 1996 were newly constituted, and most of the remainder had seen significant boundary changes. In total, 73 electorates were abolished, 29 electorates were newly created (including Banks Peninsula), and 10 electorates were recreated, giving a net loss of 34 electorates. Banks Peninsula replaced the previous Lyttelton electorate.

In boundary changes for the 2008 general election, the electorate lost its rural population centres to the newly formed Selwyn, and became a solely urban electorate that was renamed Port Hills. Labour's Ruth Dyson retained Port Hills for all four elections with a greater lead than she had seen for Banks Peninsula. Dyson chose not to seek reelection in 2020 with Labour's Tracey McLellan succeeding Dyson.^[4]

In the boundary review of 2019/2020, the Representation Commission decided to make large changes to the boundaries of Port Hills, taking area in Halswell and parts of Bromley out and adding Banks Peninsula in, to manage large changes in population in the Christchurch and Selwyn areas. The electorate was also re-recreated as Banks Peninsula.^[5][6][7] At its first election, the electorate was won easily by Labour's Tracey McLellan amidst the nationwide Labour landslide.

Members of Parliament

Key

  National   Labour   Alliance   Green

Election	Winner
1996 election		David Carter
1999 election		Ruth Dyson
2002 election
2005 election
(Electorate abolished 2008–2020; see Port Hills)
2020 election		Tracey McLellan
2023 election		Vanessa Weenink

List MPs

Election	Winner
1996 election		Rod Donald
		Ruth Dyson
1999 election		David Carter
		Rod Donald
2002 election		David Carter
		Rod Donald
2005 election		David Carter
		Rod Donald[note 1]
(Electorate abolished 2008–2020; see Port Hills)
2020 election		Eugenie Sage
2023 election		Lan Pham
		Laura Trask
2024		Tracey McLellan[note 2]

1. Rod Donald was elected from the Green Party list, but died before he was sworn into the 48th New Zealand Parliament. Nándor Tánczos was next on the list and so took Donald's place.
2. Re-entered Parliament following the resignation of Labour MP Rino Tirikatene.

Election results

2023 election

2023 general election: Banks Peninsula[8]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Vanessa Weenink		17,860	36.54	+11.91	15,839	31.97	+11.05
	Labour	N Tracey McLellan		17,464	35.69	-15.42	13,200	26.66	-23.57
	Green	Lan Pham		8,325	17.02	+4.05	9,763	19.71	+5.52
	ACT	Laura Trask		2,073	4.24	+0.89	3,919	7.92	+0.96
	NZ First	Lindsay Kerslake		1,598	3.27	+1.91	2,658	5.37	+3.39
	NewZeal	Lisa Mead		544	1.11	+1.11	323	0.65	+0.65
	DemocracyNZ	Doug Allington		474	0.96	+0.96	146	0.29	+0.29
	Animal Justice	Paran Jeet		369	0.75	+0.75	111	0.22	+0.22
	Independent	Peter Wakeman		184	0.38	+0.38
	Opportunities						2,401	4.85	+2.69
	NZ Loyal						389	0.79	+0.79
	Te Pāti Māori						388	0.78	+0.50
	Legalise Cannabis						182	0.37	+0.11
	New Conservatives						62	0.13	-1.12
	Freedoms NZ						61	0.12	+0.12
	Leighton Baker Party						53	0.11	+0.11
	Women's Rights						42	0.09	+0.09
	New Nation						22	0.04	+0.04
Informal votes				440			194
Total valid votes				49,331			49,753
	National gain from Labour		Majority	396	0.85	—

2020 election

2020 general election: Banks Peninsula[8]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Labour	Tracey McLellan		25,393	51.11	—	25,091	50.23	—
	National	Catherine Chu		12,237	24.63	—	10,453	20.92	—
	Green	Eugenie Sage		6,222	12.52	—	7,089	14.19	—
	ACT	David Fox		1,715	3.45	—	3,478	6.96	—
	Opportunities	Ben Atkinson		1,518	3.05	—	1,083	2.16	—
	NZ First	Denis O'Rourke		679	1.36	—	991	1.98	—
	New Conservative	Caleb Honiss		639	1.28	—	626	1.25	—
	Advance NZ	Tiamara Williams		506	1.01	—	424	0.84	—
	Māori Party						144	0.28	—
	Legalise Cannabis						133	0.26	—
	ONE						69	0.13	—
	Sustainable NZ						41	0.08	—
	Outdoors						37	0.07	—
	Social Credit						22	0.04	—
	Vision NZ						15	0.03	—
	TEA						10	0.02	—
	Heartland						4	0.01	—
Informal votes				772			241
Total valid votes				49,681			49,951
	Labour win new seat		Majority	13,156	26.48

2005 election

2005 election: Banks Peninsula[9]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Ruth Dyson		17,639	43.83	-1.13	16,355	40.10	-0.13
	National	David Carter		15,716	39.05	+5.33	15,697	38.48	+16.89
	Green	Rod Donald		4,542	11.29	-0.41	4,255	10.43	+0.20
	United Future	Robin Loomes		984	2.45	-1.11	1,434	3.52	-3.91
	Progressive	Phil Clearwater		898	2.23	+0.44	808	1.98	-0.62
	ACT	Alex Mann		346	0.86	-1.45	443	1.09	-6.42
	Alliance	Andrew McKenzie		118	0.29	-0.36	39	0.10	-1.18
	NZ First						1,421	3.48	-2.92
	Destiny						81	0.20	+0.20
	Māori Party						80	0.20	+0.20
	Legalise Cannabis						61	0.15	-0.32
	Christian Heritage						45	0.11	-0.92
	Libertarianz						19	0.05	+0.05
	Democrats						17	0.04	+0.04
	One NZ						10	0.02	-0.02
	99 MP						9	0.02	+0.02
	Direct Democracy						5	0.01	+0.01
	RONZ						5	0.01	+0.01
	Family Rights						4	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				342			112
Total valid votes				40,243			40,788
Turnout				41,006	86.07	+3.71
	Labour hold		Majority	1,923	4.78	-6.32

2002 election

2002 election: Banks Peninsula[10]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Ruth Dyson		16,233	44.96	+3.56	14,704	40.23	+2.88
	National	David Carter		12,176	33.72	+0.03	7,892	21.59	-12.10
	Green	Rod Donald		4,223	11.70	+1.42	3,739	10.23	+2.93
	United Future	Stephanie McEwin		1,284	3.56	+2.55a	2,717	7.43	+5.78a
	ACT	Paul King		834	2.31	+0.43	2,744	7.51	+0.77
	Progressive	Phil Clearwater		646	1.79	+1.79	952	2.60	+2.60
	Christian Heritage	Gerald Barker		476	1.32	-0.49	378	1.03	-1.02
	Alliance	Francis (Val) McClimont		234	0.65	-3.29	469	1.28	-6.30
	NZ First						2,340	6.40	+4.30
	ORNZ						424	1.16	+1.16
	Legalise Cannabis						172	0.47	-0.29
	One NZ						13	0.04	+0.01
	Mana Māori						5	0.01	+0.003
	NMP						2	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				326			96
Total valid votes				36,106			36,551
Turnout				36,743	82.36
	Labour hold		Majority	4,057	11.10	+7.22

^a United Future swing is compared to the combined 1999 results of United NZ and Future NZ, who merged in 2000.

1999 election

1999 election: Banks Peninsula[11][12]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ruth Dyson		15,475	41.40		14,018	37.35
	National	N David Carter		14,020	37.51		12,643	33.69
	Green	Rod Donald		3,842	10.28		2,739	7.30
	Alliance	Maevis Watson		1,474	3.94		2,844	7.58
	ACT	Paul King		704	1.88		2,530	6.74
	Christian Heritage	Rosemary Francis		675	1.81		769	2.05
	NZ First	Charlie Crofts		510	1.36		788	2.10
	Christian Democrats	Simon Melville Hadfield		379	1.01		409	1.09
	Independent	Ann Lewis		202	0.54
	Natural Law	David Lovell-Smith		98	0.26		48	0.13
	Legalise Cannabis						286	0.76
	United NZ						212	0.56
	Libertarianz						95	0.25
	South Island						56	0.15
	Animals First						39	0.10
	McGillicuddy Serious						30	0.08
	One NZ						12	0.03
	Mana Māori						4	0.01
	Freedom Movement						3	0.01
	Republican						3	0.01
	People's Choice						2	0.01
	Mauri Pacific						1	0.00
	NMP						1	0.00
Informal votes				390			237
Total valid votes				37,379			37,532
	Labour gain from National		Majority	1,455	3.88

1996 election

1996 general election: Banks Peninsula[13][14][15]
Notes:		Blue 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, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	David Carter		15,694	41.13		14,284	37.30
	Labour	Ruth Dyson		11,316	29.66		10,597	27.67
	Alliance	Rod Donald		7,235	18.96		5,352	13.97
	NZ First	Ross Gluer		1,782	4.67		2,839	7.41
	Christian Coalition	Neville Chamberlain		808	2.12		1,650	4.31
	ACT	Jeff Lopas		571	1.50		2,378	6.21
	Independent	Ann Lewis		351	0.92
	McGillicuddy Serious	Elizabeth Holland		199	0.52		81	0.21
	Natural Law	David Lovell-Smith		176	0.46		84	0.22
	Dominion Workers	Anton Bailey		25	0.07
	Legalise Cannabis						511	1.33
	United NZ						336	0.88
	Progressive Green						72	0.19
	Animals First						43	0.11
	Green Society						24	0.06
	Mana Māori						15	0.04
	Ethnic Minority Party						12	0.03
	Superannuitants & Youth						10	0.03
	Advance New Zealand						3	0.01
	Libertarianz						3	0.01
	Conservatives						2	0.01
	Asia Pacific United						1	0.00
	Te Tawharau						0	0.00
Informal votes				228			88
Total valid votes				38,157			38,297
	National win new seat		Majority	4,378	11.47