Upper Harbour (New Zealand electorate)

Upper Harbour
Single-member general constituency for the New ZealandHouse of Representatives
Formation	2014
Region	Auckland
Character	Suburban
Term	3 years
Member for Upper Harbour
Cameron Brewer [1] since 14 October 2023
Party	National
List MPs	Karen Chhour (ACT)
Previous MP	Vanushi Walters (Labour)
Party vote distribution

Upper Harbour is a parliamentary electorate in Auckland that returns one member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was first formed for the 2014 election. The seat was won by National's Paula Bennett in both the 2014 and 2017 election. The seat was then held by Labour's Vanushi Walters in the 2020 election. The seat is currently held by National's Cameron Brewer since the 2023 general election.

Geography

Upper Harbour covers the northwestern reaches of Waitematā Harbour. It stretches from Massey, in West Auckland, through West Harbour and Hobsonville, and across to Greenhithe and on to Glenfield and Unsworth Heights on the North Shore. ^{[2] [3]}

History

Upper Harbour was proposed in the 2013/14 electorate boundary review and confirmed by the Electoral Commission on 17 April 2014. ^[4] The 2013 census showed that the Auckland region had seen faster population growth than other areas, so needed an extra electorate to keep all electorates within five percent of their quota. To achieve this, the Electoral Commission abolished Waitakere and established two new electorates, Upper Harbour and Kelston. ^[4]

When the draft changes to electorate boundaries were first announced, the incumbent of the Waitakere electorate, Paula Bennett, was quick to announce that she would stand in Upper Harbour instead. This was to prevent Colin Craig of the Conservative Party making a claim for the electorate, as at the time, there was speculation whether the National Party would make a deal with the Conservatives for a safe seat in line with the agreement with ACT New Zealand in the Epsom electorate. ^[5] Bennett won the 2014 election with a majority of nearly 10,000 votes over Labour's Hermann Retzlaff. ^[6]

A small portion of the electorate around Tihema Stream was moved to the new electorate of Kaipara ki Mahurangi in the 2020 redistribution. ^[7] At the 2020 election, Bennett retired and Labour's Vanushi Walters won the seat against National’s Jake Bezzant. ^[8] This was one of fifteen electorates that Labour took from National in an election that dramatically changed the composition of New Zealand’s parliament. ^[9]

The 2025 Boundary Review saw Upper Harbour shifted northwards to accommodate population changes in northern Auckland, gaining the suburbs of Whenuapai and Westgate from Kaipara ki Mahurangi and Schnapper Rock from East Coast Bays, and losing Massey and Wairau Valley to Henderson and Northcote respectively. ^[10]

Members of Parliament

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

Key  National   Labour

Election	Winner
2014 election		Paula Bennett
2017 election
2020 election		Vanushi Walters
2023 election		Cameron Brewer

List MPs

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

Key  ACT

Election	Winner
2020 election		Karen Chhour
2023 election
2025 [a]		Vanushi Walters
		David Wilson

Election results

2023 election

2023 general election: Upper Harbour [11]
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	Cameron Brewer		21,498	52.73	+15.03	20,689	49.94	+18.77
	Labour	N Vanushi Walters		10,306	25.28	–18.36	9,314	22.48	–25.49
	Green	Thea Doyle		3,018	7.40	+1.23	4,872	9.34	+4.05
	ACT	Karen Chhour		2,313	5.67	+1.42	3,483	8.40	0.86
	NZ First	David Wilson		1,330	3.26	–	1,671	4.03	+2.07
	Opportunities	Shai Navot		1,109	2.72	–	884	2.13	+0.76
	NZ Loyal	Chris Newman		387	0.94	–	275	0.66	–
	Vision NZ	Bernadette Soares		137	0.33	–
	Sovereignty	Tony Corbett		83	0.20	–
	Te Pāti Māori						328	0.79	+0.44
	NewZeal						207	0.49	+0.30
	Legalise Cannabis						141	0.34	–0.04
	New Conservatives						93	0.22	–1.62
	Freedoms NZ						92	0.22	–
	Animal Justice						48	0.11	–
	DemocracyNZ						33	0.07	–
	Women's Rights						31	0.07	–
	Leighton Baker Party						12	0.02	–
	New Nation						4	0.00	–
Informal votes				586			248
Total valid votes				40,767			41,425
	National gain from Labour		Majority	11,192	27.45	+21.51

2020 election

2020 general election: Upper Harbour [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	Vanushi Walters		17,573	43.64	+14.89	19,507	47.97	+15.66
	National	Jake Bezzant		15,181	37.70	-17.73	12,675	31.17	-22.86
	Green	Ryan Nicholls		2,488	6.17	-1.33	2,151	5.29	+1.22
	ACT	Karen Chhour		1,712	4.25	+3.25	3,066	7.54	+6.87
	New Conservative	Bernadette Soares		1,265	3.14	—	752	1.84	+1.45
	TEA	Winson Tan		410	1.01	—	136	0.33	—
	Advance NZ	Peter Vaughan		309	0.76	—	256	0.62	—
	Outdoors	Catherine Giorza		157	0.38	—	22	0.05	+0.02
	Sustainable NZ	Dion Thomas		127	0.31	—	46	0.11	—
	NZ First						797	1.96	-3.77
	Opportunities						559	1.37	-0.27
	Legalise Cannabis						157	0.38	+0.14
	Māori Party						144	0.35	+0.04
	ONE						81	0.19	—
	Vision NZ						20	0.04	—
	Social Credit						5	0.01	-0.01
	Heartland						5	0.01	—
Informal votes				1,042			281
Total valid votes				40,264			40,660
Turnout				40,660
	Labour gain from National		Majority	2,392	5.94	-20.73

2017 election

2017 general election: Upper Harbour [13]
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	Y Paula Bennett		19,857	55.43	-0.52	19,722	54.03	-0.22
	Labour	Jin An		10,301	28.75	+2.41	11,793	32.31	+8.95
	Green	James Goodhue		2,688	7.5	-0.5	1,484	4.07	-2.9
	NZ First	Jane Johnston		2,192	6.12	—	2,092	5.73	-1.18
	ACT	Bruce Haycock		358	1	-0.67	246	0.67	-0.76
	Opportunities						597	1.64	—
	Conservative						144	0.39	-4.43
	Māori Party						112	0.31	-0.44
	Legalise Cannabis						88	0.24	-0.14
	People's Party						25	0.07	—
	Mana						24	0.07	-0.78 [b]
	United Future						21	0.06	-0.14
	Internet						14	0.04	-0.81 [c]
	Outdoors						11	0.03	—
	Ban 1080						9	0.02	-0.01
	Democrats						6	0.02	+0.01
Informal votes				429			114
Total valid votes				35,825			36,502
	National hold		Majority	9,556	26.67	-2.94

2014 election

2014 general election: Upper Harbour [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	%	±%
	National	Y Paula Bennett		18,315	55.95	—	20,853	54.25	—
	Labour	Hermann Retzlaff		8,623	26.34	—	4,965	23.36	—
	Green	Nicholas Mayne		2,619	8.00	—	2,329	6.97	—
	Conservative	Callum Blair		1,839	5.61	—	1,613	4.82	—
	ACT	Stephen Berry		549	1.67	—	450	1.34	—
	Māori Party	Hinurewa Te Hau		246	0.75	—	119	0.35	—
	Mana Party	Makelesi Ngata		204	0.62	—
	NZ First						2,311	6.91	—
	Internet Mana						432	0.85	—
	Legalise Cannabis						129	0.38	—
	United Future						69	0.20	—
	Civilian						14	0.04	—
	Ban 1080						13	0.03	—
	Independent Coalition						7	0.02	—
	Focus						4	0.01	—
	Democrats						4	0.01	—
Informal votes				338			130
Total valid votes				32,733			33,403
Turnout				33,420	73.42 [14]	—
	National win new seat		Majority	9,692	29.61

Notes

1. Walters became a list MP in May 2025, while Wilson became a list MP in June 2025.
2. 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
3. 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

References

1. "Upper Harbour – Official Result". Electoral Commission . Retrieved 8 March 2025.
2. McQuillan, Laura; Marwick, Felix (21 November 2013). "Sweeping changes to electorates". Newstalk ZB . Archived from the original on 13 January 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
3. "Election 2020: Human rights lawyer Vanushi Walters is new Upper Harbour MP". Stuff. 17 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
4. "New electorate boundaries finalised". Electoral Commission. 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
5. Small, Vernon (22 November 2013). "Bennett won't make way for Craig". The Dominion Post . Fairfax New Zealand. Archived from the original on 9 June 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
6. "Official Count Results – Upper Harbour". Electoral Commission. 4 October 2014. Archived from the original on 13 January 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
7. "Report of the Representation Commission 2020" (PDF). 17 April 2020.
8. "Election 2020: Human rights lawyer Vanushi Walters is new Upper Harbour MP". Stuff. 17 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
9. "The red tide: Labour wins 15 seats held by National". RNZ . 18 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
10. Report of the Representation Commission 2025 (PDF). Representation Commission. 8 August 2025. p. 18-19. ISBN   978-0-473-75233-0 . Retrieved 3 September 2025.
11. "Upper Harbour – Official Result". Electoral Commission . Retrieved 15 September 2024.
12. "Upper Harbour – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
13. "Official Count Results – Upper Harbour". Wellington: New Zealand Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
14. "2014 General Election Voter Turnout Statistics – Upper Harbour". Electoral Commission. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

External links

• Upper Harbour electorate profile, New Zealand Parliament