Comings and Goings
It’s that time again! With an election now just around the corner, you’ll be hearing from politicians of all stripes about why you should vote for them and their party!
Rather than get into predictable partisan politics, though, in this column I thought I’d take the chance to explain what’s happening with the boundaries and name of the Helensville electorate.
The background is that following each national census, a review is conducted of electorate boundaries to ensure that each has a roughly equal number of eligible voters. Given the constant shifting of populations due to internal migration, overseas arrivals and new residential developments, considerable changes can occur.
We’ve been advised that the Helensville electorate will be changed in a few key ways, including that the area will no longer include the Waitakere Ranges, including various west coast beaches, and much of Coatesville, Dairy Flat and surrounding areas.
On the other hand, the electorate will gain territory in the vicinity of Massey at the West Auckland end and also large areas to the north, such as the townships of Wellsford, Warkworth and Matakana.
Many of the issues of Auckland’s rural north are similar to those currently on my radar, just with different projects needing to be completed (or started, in some cases!) in different areas.
It’s also worth knowing that the name of this electorate will change, from Helensville to “Kaipara Ki Mahurangi”. It’s a long name, which I suspect will commonly be abbreviated to “Kaipara” or “KKM”, but simply means the land mass between the Kaipara Harbour and Mahurangi coast.
All these changes will apply for the upcoming 2020 election and beyond (at least until they change again!) but for now I remain, with a mixture of pride and humility, your local Member of Parliament for this Helensville electorate.
