Ōhāriu (New Zealand electorate)

Ōhāriu electorate boundaries used since the 2014 election

Ōhāriu, previously styled Ohariu and then Ōhariu, is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. It was contested for the first time at the 2008 election. It is the successor to Ohariu-Belmont, first contested at the first Mixed Member Proportional election in 1996. Through its existence Ohariu-Belmont was represented by Peter Dunne, leader of the United Future party. Dunne contested and won the new electorate in 2008.

Population centres

The boundaries of the two electorates are near identical except for the removal of the eponymous Lower Hutt suburb of Belmont into the Rimutaka seat and the addition of Crofton Downs from Wellington Central. The new electorate contains the section of Wellington City between Crofton Downs and southern Tawa, including Ngaio, Khandallah, Johnsonville and Newlands. The rest of the electorate consists of Lower Hutt's hill suburbs of Korokoro, Maungaraki and Normandale. Ōhāriu is one of 11 electorate names to include a macron, for the first time. The name was later change to include a second macron.

Both Ohariu-Belmont and Ōhāriu are young and wealthy; it has the largest number of 30-49 year-olds in the country, and the second highest number of families earning between $70,000 and $100,000 per year. 69% of its population is New Zealand European, 14% Asian and 8% Māori.^[1]

History

Despite Dunne having a 7,702 vote majority in Ohariu-Belmont at the 2005 election,^[2] United's performance was less impressive. In 2005 it won just 5.6% of the party vote (down from 13.0% in 2002) in an electorate dominated by the big two parties: National came out on top in the party vote with 43.1%, beating Labour by 3.6%, having been reduced to 24.4% three years earlier.^[3]

Historically Ohariu (without a macron) was an electorate based around north and western Wellington, contested between 1978 and 1990. A substantial redrawing of Wellington's boundaries ahead of the last First Past the Post election in 1993 led to Ohariu being divided between Wellington-Karori and the new electorate of Onslow. Dunne, then a member of the Labour Party, was the MP for the old Ohariu between 1984 until its abolition, and won Onslow in 1993.

Members of Parliament

Key

  National     Labour     United Future     Green  

¹Dunne defected to United New Zealand in 1995.

List MPs

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

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Ōhāriu[4]
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	%	±%
	United Future	Y Peter Dunne		14,357	38.58	+5.97	672	1.78	-0.43
	Labour	Charles Chauvel		12,965	34.84	+4.89	10,036	26.53	-6.80
	National	Katrina Shanks		6,907	18.56	-7.97	18,764	49.60	+3.33
	Green	Gareth Hughes		2,160	5.80	-1.26	5,453	14.42	+5.28
	Conservative	Stephen Woodnutt		378	1.02	+1.02	636	1.68	+1.68
	NZ First	Hugh Barr		339	0.91	+0.91	1,478	3.91	+1.82
	Libertarianz	Sean Fitzpatrick		109	0.29	+0.29	47	0.12	+0.07
	ACT						286	0.76	-2.66
	Māori						201	0.53	-0.20
	Legalise Cannabis						160	0.42	+0.11
	Mana						73	0.19	+0.19
	Alliance						12	0.03	-0.11
	Democrats						10	0.03	+0.003
Informal votes				369			137
Total Valid votes				37,215			37,828
	United Future hold		Majority	1392	3.74	+1.07

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 46,740^[5]

2008 election

General Election 2008: Ōhariu[6]
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	%	±%
	United Future	Y Peter Dunne		12,303	32.61		843	2.21
	Labour	Charles Chauvel		11,297	29.95		12,728	33.33
	National	Katrina Shanks		10,009	26.53		17,670	46.27
	Green	Gareth Hughes		2,665	7.06		3,488	9.13
	Kiwi	Joel Sison		522	1.38		283	0.74
	ACT	Colin du Plessis		487	1.29		1,304	3.41
	Legalise Cannabis	Danyl Strype		330	0.87		119	0.31
	Alliance	Kelly Buchanan		111	0.29		55	0.14
	NZ First						798	2.09
	Māori						278	0.73
	Progressive						273	0.71
	Bill and Ben						208	0.54
	Family Party						65	0.17
	Pacific						22	0.06
	Libertarianz						20	0.05
	Workers Party						11	0.03
	Democrats						9	0.02
	RAM						7	0.02
	RONZ						7	0.02
Informal votes				242			88
Total Valid votes				37,724			38,188
	United Future win new seat		Majority	1,006	2.67

References