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. It first existed from 1978 to 1993, and was recreated for the 2008 election. In 2008, it was the successor to Ohariu-Belmont, first contested at the first mixed-member proportional (MMP) election in 1996. Through its existence Ohariu-Belmont was represented by Peter Dunne, leader of the United Future party. Dunne contested and won the recreated electorate in 2008.

Population centres

The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established through an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government.^[1] As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed. This had little practical effect for people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island.^[2] The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Ohariu) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.^[3]

The Ohariu electorate replaced the Karori electorate, but did not include any of Khandallah or Ngaio.^[4]

In 2008, the boundaries of the Ohariu-Belmont and Ōhariu electorates were near identical except for the removal of the eponymous Lower Hutt suburb of Belmont into the Rimutaka electorate and the addition of Crofton Downs from Wellington Central. The new electorate contained the section of Wellington City between Crofton Downs and southern Tawa, including Ngaio, Khandallah, Johnsonville and Newlands. The rest of the electorate consisted of Lower Hutt's hill suburbs of Korokoro, Maungaraki and Normandale. Ōhariu was one of eleven 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- to 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.^[5]

History

Despite Dunne having a 7,702 vote majority in Ohariu-Belmont at the 2005 election,^[6] 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.^[7]

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

===2014 election===

General Election 2014: Ōhāriu[8]
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		13,569	36.58	−2.00	273	0.73	−1.05
	Labour	Virginia Andersen		12,859	34.66	−0.18	8,771	23.42	−3.11
	National	Brett Hudson		6,120	16.50	−2.06	18,810	50.23	+0.63
	Green	Tane Woodley		2,764	7.45	+1.65	5,623	15.01	+0.59
	Conservative	Michael Brunner		1,038	2.80	+1.78	1,118	2.99	+1.31
	Independent	Sue Hamill		211	0.57	+0.57
	ACT	Sean Fitzpatrick		209	0.56	+0.56	250	0.67	−0.09
	Democrats	Alida Steemson		46	0.12	+0.12	22	0.06	+0.03
	NZ First						1,781	4.76	+0.85
	Internet Mana						258	0.69	+0.50
	Māori						215	0.57	+0.04
	Legalise Cannabis						146	0.39	−0.03
	Civilian						29	0.08	+0.08
	Ban 1080						15	0.04	+0.04
	Independent Coalition						9	0.02	+0.02
	Focus						4	0.01	+0.01
Informal votes				283			126
Total Valid votes				37,099			37,450
	United Future hold		Majority	710	1.91	−1.83

2011 election

General Election 2011: Ōhāriu[9]
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^[10]

2008 election

General Election 2008: Ōhariu[11]
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

Notes

References

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8. 
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.