Northland (New Zealand electorate)

Northland
Single-member constituency for the New Zealand House of Representatives
Location of Northland within Northland
Region	Northland
Major settlements	Kerikeri Kaitaia Dargaville
Area	11,279.85 km^2 (4,355.17 sq mi)
Current constituency
Current MP	Grant McCallum
Party	National
List MP	Mark Cameron (ACT) Shane Jones (NZ First) Willow-Jean Prime (Labour)

Northland is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The electorate was established for the 1996 election. It was represented by National Party MP John Carter from 1996 to 2011, and then National's Mike Sabin until his resignation on 30 January 2015. The by-election in March 2015 was won by New Zealand First party leader Winston Peters. Peters was defeated by National's Matt King in the 2017 general election. King in turn was defeated by the Labour Party's Willow-Jean Prime in the 2020 general election, who became the first Labour MP elected for the area since the party won the predecessor electorate Bay of Islands in 1938. Prime was later defeated in the 2023 election by National's Grant McCallum

Population centres

Northland is the northernmost general electorate of New Zealand. The electorate encompasses the entire Far North District and Kaipara District, and a small rural section of Whangarei District. At the 2008 election, the town of Wellsford became part of Northland due to heavy population growth in the Rodney seat.^[1] No boundary adjustments were undertaken in the subsequent 2013/14 redistribution.^[2] At the 2019/20 review, the seat lost Wellsford to the new electorate of Kaipara ki Mahurangi, but gained Poroti and Maungakaramea from Whangārei.

• Taipa Bay-Mangonui (2,050)
• Kaitaia (6,380)
• Kerikeri (8,360)
• Paihia (1,690)
• Opua (860)
• Haruru Falls (870)
• Kawakawa (1,630)
• Moerewa (2,100)
• Kaikohe (4,890)
• Dargaville (5,230)
• Mangawhai Heads (1,086)

History

The Northland electorate was created ahead of the introduction of mixed-member proportional voting in the 1996 election. It was formed from the whole of the Far North electorate (called Bay of Islands before 1993), and a large section of the Hobson seat.

Former Bay of Islands and then Far North MP John Carter of the National Party was elected MP for Northland in 1996, and was returned at every election until the 2008 election. Carter left Parliament in June 2011 to take up a post as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the Cook Islands. His departure did not result in a by-election, as the vacancy occurred within six months of the next general election.^[3]

In May 2011 Mike Sabin was selected as the National Party candidate in place of Carter.^[4] Sabin had a majority of 11,362 and 9,300 votes in 2011 and 2014, respectively.^[5][6] In December 2014 news media reported that he was under investigation by police over an assault complaint. The reports were not confirmed by the New Zealand Police, the Prime Minister or Sabin himself.^{[7][8][9][10]} Sabin resigned from parliament on 30 January 2015 with immediate effect "due to personal issues that were best dealt with outside Parliament."^[11] The resignation forced a by-election in the electorate.^[12]

The by-election in March 2015 was won by New Zealand First party leader Winston Peters. Peters was later defeated by National's Matt King in the 2017 general election.^[13]

The electorate is one where National traditionally performs well; Labour did not win a general electorate north of Wellsford in any election from 1943 to 2017 besides a one-off victory in Whangarei in 1972. However, in the 2020 election, Northland elected its first ever Labour MP and the first Labour MP for the area for 77 years.

The upper North Island is also a place where New Zealand First has one of its strongest voter bases; in 1996, Ian Peters and Frank Grover of the Alliance beat Labour's candidate into fourth place and nine percent of the vote. Third parties do well in Northland – at the 1960 and 1963 elections, Social Credit candidate Vernon Cracknell came runner up in Hobson, before taking the seat with 48 percent of the vote in 1966. The area had previously been receptive to social credit theory – Harold Rushworth of the credit-influenced Country Party had held Bay of Islands for three terms, from 1928 to 1938.

Members of Parliament

Key

National	NZ First	Alliance
Christian Heritage	Green	Labour
ACT

Election	Winner
1996 election		John Carter
1999 election
2002 election
2005 election
2008 election
2011 election		Mike Sabin
2014 election
2015 by-election		Winston Peters
2017 election		Matt King
2020 election		Willow-Jean Prime
2023 election		Grant McCallum

List MPs

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

Election	Winner
1996 election		Frank Grover^1
1999 election		Sue Bradford
2002 election		Jim Peters
2005 election		Shane Jones
2008 election
2014 election		David Clendon
2017 election		Winston Peters
		Willow-Jean Prime
2020 election		Mark Cameron
2023 election		Mark Cameron
		Shane Jones
		Willow-Jean Prime

¹ Grover left the Alliance in 1999 and joined the Christian Heritage Party.

Election results

2023 election

2023 general election: Northland[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	%	±%
	National	Grant McCallum		16,272	35.63	-2.11	16,418	35.31	+7.83
	Labour	N Willow-Jean Prime		10,185	22.30	-15.81	10,211	21.96	-22.02
	NZ First	Shane Jones		8,143	17.83	+6.40	6,523	14.03	+8.20
	DemocracyNZ	Matt King		3,812	8.35	—	784	1.69	—
	Green	Reina Tuai Penney		2,424	5.31	+1.40	3,705	7.97	+1.87
	ACT	Mark Cameron		2,135	4.67	+1.81	4,729	10.17	+0.66
	NZ Loyal	Michael Feyen		1,331	2.91	—	1,529	3.29	—
	Legalise Cannabis	Jeff Lye		677	1.48	—	219	0.66	+0.01
	Independent	Mike Finlayson		369	0.81	—
	Māori Party						716	1.54	+1.14
	Opportunities						577	1.24	+0.52
	NewZeal						280	0.60	—
	Freedoms NZ						208	0.45	—
	Animal Justice						114	0.25	—
	New Nation						56	0.14	—
	Leighton Baker Party						64	0.14	—
	New Conservatives						64	0.14	-1.71
	Women's Rights						26	0.09	—
Informal votes				326			161
Total valid votes				45,674			46,488
Turnout
	National gain from Labour		Majority	6,087	13.33

2020 election

2020 general election: Northland[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	Willow-Jean Prime		17,066	38.11	+16.50	19,997	43.98	+13.86
	National	N Matt King		16,903	37.74	-0.56	12,496	27.48	-18.87
	NZ First	Shane Jones		5,119	11.43	-23.38	2,651	5.83	-7.24
	Green	Darleen Tana Hoff-Neilson		1,749	3.91	-0.60	2,772	6.10	+0.05
	ACT	Mark Cameron		1,279	2.86	+2.56	4,326	9.51	+9.04
	Advance NZ	Nathan Mitchell		847	1.89	—	949	2.09	—
	New Conservative	Trevor Barfoote		686	1.53	+1.07	842	1.85	+1.48
	Independent	Mike Shaw		480	1.07	—
	Opportunities	Helen Jeremiah		326	0.73	—	326	0.72	-1.26
	Outdoors	Michele Mitcalfe		219	0.49	—	106	0.23	+0.16
	Social Credit	Brad Flutey		82	0.18	—	69	0.15	+0.09
	Harmony Network NZ	Sophia Xiao-Colley		28	0.06	—
	Legalise Cannabis						294	0.65	+0.25
	ONE						248	0.55	—
	Māori Party						181	0.40	+0.07
	Sustainable NZ						37	0.08	—
	Vision NZ						30	0.07	—
	TEA						6	0.01	—
	Heartland						3	0.01	—
Informal votes				646			363
Total valid votes				44,784			45,467
Turnout				45,604	84.10	+2.61
	Labour gain from National		Majority	163	0.37	+17.06

2017 election

2017 general election: Northland[16]
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	Matt King		15,243	38.30	−14.44	18,834	46.35	−2.62
	NZ First	N Winston Peters		13,854	34.81	—	5,353	13.17	+0.38
	Labour	Willow-Jean Prime		8,599	21.61	−4.28	12,243	30.12	+13.50
	Green	Peter Hughes		1,794	4.51	−6.00	2,458	6.05	−4.79
	Conservative	Mel Taylor		185	0.46	−4.03	149	0.37	−5.94
	ACT	Craig Nelson		121	0.30	−0.28	191	0.47	+0.01
	Opportunities						806	1.98	—
	Legalise Cannabis						200	0.49	−0.05
	Māori Party						133	0.33	−0.26
	Mana Party						119	0.29	−1.40[a]
	Ban 1080						50	0.12	−0.02
	Outdoors						27	0.07	—
	Democrats						25	0.06	−0.12
	People's Party						25	0.06	—
	United Future						22	0.05	−0.15
	Internet						1	0.002	−1.69[b]
Informal votes				306			149
Total valid votes				39,796			40,636
Turnout				40,785
	National gain from NZ First		Majority	1,389	3.49	−23.36

2015 by-election

The following table shows final by-election results:^[17]

2015 Northland by-election
Notes: Blue background denotes the winner of the by-election. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list prior to the by-election. Yellow background denotes the winner of the by-election, who was a list MP prior to the by-election. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NZ First	Winston Peters	16,089	54.45	+54.45
	National	Mark Osborne	11,648	39.42	−13.32
	Labour	Willow-Jean Prime	1,380	4.67	−21.22
	Focus	Joe Carr	113	0.38	−4.41
	Legalise Cannabis	Maki Herbert	94	0.32	+0.32
	ACT	Robin Grieve	68	0.23	−0.35
	Mana Party	Reuben Porter	60	0.20	+0.20
	Climate	Rob Painting	39	0.13	+0.13
	Independent	Bruce Rogan	24	0.08	+0.08
	Independent	Adrian Bonner	17	0.06	+0.06
	Independent	Adam Holland	16	0.05	+0.05
Informal votes			42	0.14	−1.05
Total Valid votes			29,548
Turnout			29,590	64.39	−14.51
Registered electors			45,955
	NZ First gain from National	Majority	4,441	15.03

2014 election

2014 general election: Northland[18]
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 Mike Sabin		18,269	52.74	−4.81	17,412	48.97	−1.17
	Labour	Willow-Jean Prime		8,969	25.89	+4.30	5,913	16.63	−0.97
	Green	David Clendon		3,639	10.51	−1.59	3,855	10.84	−0.94
	Focus	Ken Rintoul		1,661	4.80	+4.80	216	0.61	+0.61
	Conservative	Melanie Taylor		1,555	4.49	−0.59	2,243	6.31	+1.06
	ACT	Craig Nelson		200	0.58	−0.25	162	0.46	−1.19
	Democrats	David Angus Wilson		173	0.50	+0.50	64	0.18	+0.07
	Independent	Murray Robertson		96	0.28	+0.28
	Money Free	Jordan Osmaston		75	0.22	+0.22
	NZ First						4,546	12.79	+2.59
	Internet Mana						601	1.69	+0.40[c]
	Māori Party						210	0.59	−0.20
	Legalise Cannabis						193	0.54	−0.11
	United Future						71	0.20	−0.26
	Ban 1080						51	0.14	+0.14
	Independent Coalition						9	0.03	+0.03
	Civilian						7	0.02	+0.02
Informal votes				419			154
Total valid votes				34,637			35,553
Turnout				35,553	78.90	+4.97
	National hold		Majority	9,300	26.85	−9.10

2011 election

2011 general election: Northland[5]
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	Mike Sabin		18,188	57.55	-1.59	16,381	50.15	-1.55
	Labour	Lynette Stewart		6,826	21.60	-7.64	5,748	17.60	-7.44
	Green	Pauline Evans		3,822	12.09	+5.22	3,848	11.78	+4.44
	Conservative	Melanie Taylor		1,606	5.08	+5.08	1,714	5.25	+5.25
	Mana	Ngawai Herewini		611	1.93	+1.93	420	1.29	+1.29
	Māori Party	Josephine Peita		290	0.92	+0.92	257	0.79	-0.69
	ACT	Barry Brill		261	0.83	-0.85	536	1.64	-2.57
	NZ First						3,330	10.19	+3.79
	Legalise Cannabis						213	0.65	+0.23
	United Future						149	0.46	-0.21
	Democrats						35	0.11	-0.03
	Libertarianz						25	0.08	+0.004
	Alliance						9	0.03	-0.05
Informal votes				972			308
Total valid votes				31,604			32,665
	National hold		Majority	11,362	35.95	+6.05

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 44,182^[19]

2008 election

2008 general election: Northland[20]
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 John Carter		19,889	59.14		17,703	51.70
	Labour	Shane Jones		9,835	29.24		8,573	25.04
	Green	Martin Leiding		2,311	6.87		2,514	7.34
	ACT	Alan (Smilie) Wood		565	1.68		1,443	4.21
	Kiwi	Mike Shaw		381	1.13		216	0.63
	Family Party	Melanie Taylor		319	0.95		162	0.47
	Democrats	David Wilson		171	0.51		48	0.14
	United Future	Phil Johnson		162	0.48		228	0.67
	NZ First						2,194	6.41
	Māori Party						507	1.48
	Progressive						258	0.75
	Bill and Ben						153	0.45
	Legalise Cannabis						144	0.42
	Alliance						28	0.08
	Libertarianz						25	0.07
	Pacific						17	0.05
	Workers Party						16	0.05
	RAM						6	0.02
	RONZ						5	0.01
Informal votes				310			132
Total valid votes				33,633			34,240
	National hold		Majority	10,054

2005 election

2005 general election: Northland[21]
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 John Carter		16,577	54.12		14,182	45.69
	Labour	Shane Jones		7,302	23.84		9,384	30.23
	Green	Sue Bradford		2,764	9.02		2,000	6.44
	NZ First	Jim Peters		2,547	8.32		3,162	10.19
	Māori Party	Malcolm Peri		550	1.80		484	1.56
	United Future	Phil Johnson		315	1.03		618	1.99
	Destiny	David Isaachsen		278	0.91		196	0.63
	ACT	Tom McClelland		216	0.71		474	1.53
	Libertarianz	Julian Pistorius		51	0.17		27	0.09
	Independent	Gray Phillips		18	0.06
	Direct Democracy	Mel Whaanga		10	0.03		5	0.02
	Progressive						272	0.88
	Legalise Cannabis						94	0.30
	Democrats						48	0.015
	Christian Heritage						37	0.12
	Alliance						27	0.09
	99 MP						11	0.04
	Family Rights						6	0.02
	One NZ						6	0.02
	RONZ						6	0.02
Informal votes				233			133
Total valid votes				30,628			31,039
	National hold		Majority	9,275	30.28

2002 election

2002 general election: Northland[22]
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 John Carter		13,060	46.03		6,523	22.78
	Labour	Rachel Pose		5,502	19.39		8,445	29.49

1999 election

1999 general election: Northland[23]
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 John Carter		12,437	40.71		6,523	22.78
	Labour	Rachel Pose		5,502	19.39		8,445	29.49

Refer to Candidates in the New Zealand general election 1999 by electorate#Northland for a list of candidates.

1996 election

1996 general election: Northland[24]
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	John Carter		13,033	40.71		6,523	22.78
	Labour	Ron Peters		7,717	19.39		8,445	29.49
	Alliance	Frank Grover		3,515

Notes

1. 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
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. 2014 Internet Mana swing is relative to the votes for Mana in 2011; it shared a party list with Internet in the 2014 election.

References

1. Report of the Representation Commission 2007 (PDF). Representation Commission. 14 September 2007. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
2. Report of the Representation Commission 2014 (PDF). Representation Commission. 4 April 2014. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-477-10414-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
3. Trevett, Claire (8 June 2011). "MP pleads for laughter and leniency as he goes". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
4. McMillan, Malcolm (2 May 2011). "Anti-P man Mike Sabin takes safe National seat". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
5. "Official Count Results – Northland". Electoral Commission. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
6. "Official Count Results – Northland". Electoral Commission. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
7. Bennett, Adam (22 December 2014). "Cloud over National MP's future". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
8. Lomas, David (21 December 2014). "National MP Mike Sabin in police assault inquiry". Stuff. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
9. Bennett, Adam (22 December 2014). "Sabin in the spotlight as assault allegation surfaces". The Northern Advocate. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
10. "Police tight-lipped about assault allegation". Radio New Zealand. 21 December 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
11. "Mike Sabin announces resignation as Northland MP". Scoop. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
12. "John Key says National did not ask Mike Sabin to quit after MP resigns 'due to personal issues'". The New Zealand Herald. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
13. "King beats kingmaker in nail-biting race for Northland seat". The New Zealand Herald. 24 September 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
14. "Northland – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 3 November 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
15. "Official Count Results – Northland (2020)". Electoral Commission. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
16. "Official Count Results – Northland (2017)". Electoral Commission. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
17. "Northland by-election official results". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
18. "Official Count Results – Northland". Electoral Commission. 21 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
19. "Enrolment statistics". Electoral Commission. 26 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
20. 2008 election results
21. election result Northland 2005
22. election result Northland 2002
23. https://electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_1999/e9/html/e9_partVI.html
24. [1]

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library