Port Hills (New Zealand electorate)

Port Hills was a parliamentary electorate of New Zealand that existed for the 2008 through 2017 general elections. 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 held Port Hills for its entire existence before retiring ahead of the 2020 election. The Port Hills electorate was 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.

Port Hills electorate boundaries used from the 2014 election until 2020

Ahead of the 2020 election, the boundaries were again adjusted and Port Hills abolished. Most of its area is now covered by the Banks Peninsula electorate.

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 came 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 was urban.^[1]

The following suburbs, in alphabetical order, were 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, Te Rāpaki-o-Te Rakiwhakaputa, 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 resulted in the electorate losing the areas around Bromley and Sydenham but regaining Halswell back from Selwyn.^[1][3][4]

Port Hills was abolished for the 2020 general election, being replaced largely by a recreated Banks Peninsula. This was to absorb population growth in neighbouring Selwyn.^[5]

History

Because the new suburbs were strong Labour-voting areas, Banks Peninsula MP Ruth Dyson retained the electorate despite a nationwide swing to the National Party in 2008. This was also one of the electorates which elected a Labour MP but where the National Party won the party vote.^[6] National's candidate in 2008 was Terry Heffernan (1952–2010), who at that time was already weakened by cancer.^[7]

In the 2011 election, Dyson contested the electorate against David Carter.^[8] 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.^[8]

In the 2014 election, the National Party put up Nuk Korako against Dyson;^[9] Carter had in the meantime been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives and as such, was not contesting an electorate any longer.^[10] Based on preliminary counts, Dyson has a majority of 1,865 votes over Korako.^[9]

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.^[11][12][13]

Members of Parliament

Key

  Labour   National   NZ First   Green

Election	Winner
2008 election		Ruth Dyson
2011 election
2014 election
2017 election
(Electorate abolished in 2020; see Banks Peninsula)

List MPs

Election	Winner
2011 election		David Carter
		Denis O'Rourke
2014 election		Nuk Korako
		Eugenie Sage
		Denis O'Rourke
2017 election		Nuk Korako[a]
		Eugenie Sage

Election results

2017 election

2017 general election: Port Hills[14]
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		22,603	53.89	+7.45	16,825	39.40	+15.53
	National	Nuk Korako		14,687	35.02	−5.72	17,381	40.70	−6.26
	Green	Eugenie Sage		3,143	7.49	−0.33	4,392	10.29	−6.80
	NZ First	Denis O'Rourke		1,258	3.00	+0.11	2,064	4.83	−1.79
	ACT	David Fox		189	0.45	+0.08	153	0.39	−0.08
	Democrats	Gary Gribben		60	0.14	+0.01	22	0.05	−0.05
	Opportunities						1,459	3.42	–
	Māori Party						140	0.33	−0.09
	Legalise Cannabis						91	0.21	−0.09
	Conservative						80	0.19	−2.92
	United Future						24	0.06	−0.14
	Outdoors						23	0.05	–
	Ban 1080						18	0.04	−0.04
	People's Party						12	0.03	–
	Internet						11	0.03	−0.72[b]
	Mana Party						5	0.01	−0.74[c]
Informal votes				360			110
Total valid votes				41,490			42,700
Turnout				42,810
	Labour hold		Majority	7,916	18.87	+13.70

2014 election

2014 general election: Port Hills[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	%	±%
	Labour	Y 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[d]
	Māori Party						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

2011 general election: Port Hills[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	Y 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 Party						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^[16]

2008 election

2008 general election: Port Hills[6]
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		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 Party						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. Korako resigned as a list MP effective 16 May 2019.
2. 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
3. 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
4. 2014 Internet Mana swing is relative to the votes for Mana in 2011; it shared a party list with Internet in the 2014 election.