Northland
Single-member general constituency for theNew ZealandHouse of Representatives
Formation	1996
Region	Northland
Character	Rural
Term	3 years
Member for Northland
Grant McCallum[1] since14 October 2023
Party	National
List MPs	Mark Cameron (ACT) Shane Jones (NZ First) Willow-Jean Prime (Labour)
Previous MP	Willow-Jean Prime (Labour)
Party vote distribution

Northland is a New Zealand parliamentaryelectorate, returning one Member of Parliament to theNew Zealand House of Representatives. The electorate was established for the 1996 election. It was represented byNational Party MPJohn Carter from 1996 to 2011, and then National'sMike Sabin until his resignation on 30 January 2015. Theby-election in March 2015 was won byNew Zealand First party leaderWinston Peters. Peters was defeated by National'sMatt King in the2017 general election. King in turn was defeated by theLabour Party'sWillow-Jean Prime in the2020 general election, who became the first Labour MP elected for the area since the party won the predecessor electorateBay of Islands in1938. Prime was later defeated in the2023 election by National'sGrant McCallum.

Northland is the northernmost general electorate of New Zealand. The electorate encompasses the entireFar North District andKaipara District, and a small rural section ofWhangarei District. At the 2008 election, the town ofWellsford became part of Northland due to heavy population growth in theRodney seat.^[2] No boundary adjustments were undertaken in the subsequent 2013/14 redistribution.^[3] At the 2019/20 review, the seat lost Wellsford to the new electorate ofKaipara ki Mahurangi, but gainedPoroti andMaungakaramea fromWhangārei. At the 2025 review, the electorate lost the rural communities betweenWhangaruru andWhananaki toWhangārei.^[4]

• Taipa Bay-Mangonui (2,050)
• Kaitaia (6,170)
• Kerikeri (8,380)
• Paihia (1,640)
• Opua (860)
• Haruru Falls (870)
• Kawakawa (1,500)
• Moerewa (1,930)
• Kaikohe (4,720)
• Dargaville (5,170)
• Mangawhai Heads (1,086)

The Northland electorate was created ahead of the introduction ofmixed-member proportional voting in the1996 election. It was formed from the whole of theFar North electorate (calledBay of Islands before 1993), and a large section of theHobson seat.

Former Bay of Islands and then Far North MPJohn Carter of the National Party was elected MP for Northland in 1996, and was returned at every election until the2008 election. Carter left Parliament in June 2011 to take up a post as New Zealand'sHigh Commissioner to theCook Islands. His departure did not result in a by-election, as the vacancy occurred within six months of the next general election.^[5]

In May 2011Mike Sabin was selected as the National Party candidate in place of Carter.^[6] Sabin had a majority of 11,362 and 9,300 votes in2011 and2014, respectively.^[7][8] 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.^{[9][10][11][12]} Sabin resigned from parliament on 30 January 2015 with immediate effect "due to personal issues that were best dealt with outside Parliament."^[13] The resignation forced aby-election in the electorate.^[14]

The by-election in March 2015 was won byNew Zealand First party leaderWinston Peters. Peters was later defeated by National'sMatt King in the2017 general election.^[15]

The electorate is one where National traditionally performs well; Labour did not win a general electorate north of Wellsford in any election from1943 to2017 besides a one-off victory inWhangarei in1972. However, in the2020 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 andFrank Grover of the Alliance beat Labour's candidate into fourth place and nine percent of the vote. Third parties do well in Northland – at the1960 and1963 elections,Social Credit candidateVernon Cracknell came runner up in Hobson, before taking the seat with 48 percent of the vote in1966. The area had previously been receptive to social credit theory –Harold Rushworth of the credit-influencedCountry Party had held Bay of Islands for three terms, from1928 to1938.

Key

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.

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

2023 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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, 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	NWillow-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
	Nationalgain fromLabour		Majority	6,087	13.33

2020 general election: Northland[17]
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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, 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	NMatt 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
	Labourgain fromNational		Majority	163	0.37	+17.06

2017 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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, 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	NWinston 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
	Nationalgain fromNZ First		Majority	1,389	3.49	−23.36

The following table shows final by-election results:^[19]

2014 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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	YMike 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
	Nationalhold		Majority	9,300	26.85	−9.10

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 44,182^[21]

2008 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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	YJohn 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
	Nationalhold		Majority	10,054

2005 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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	YJohn 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
	Nationalhold		Majority	9,275	30.28

2002 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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	YJohn Carter		13,060	46.03		6,523	22.78
	Labour	Rachel Pose		5,502	19.39		8,445	29.49

1999 general election: Northland[25]
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. AY orN denotes status of anyincumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	YJohn Carter		12,437	40.71		6,523	22.78
	Labour	Rachel Pose		5,502	19.39		8,445	29.49

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

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