Helensville (New Zealand electorate)

Helensville is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives. The electorate was first established for the 1978 election and was abolished again in 1984, and has existed again since the 2002 election. The current MP for Helensville is John Key, the former leader of the National Party and former Prime Minister of New Zealand. He has held this electorate since 2002.

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. 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. The electoral redistribution was very disruptive, and 22 electorates were abolished, while 27 electorates were newly created (including Helensville) or re-established. These changes came into effect for the 1978 election.

In the 1983 electoral redistribution, the Helensville electorate was abolished, and its area went to West Auckland and Rodney. The electorate was re-established in time for the 2002 election in reaction to continued high population growth in and around Auckland. It was made by cutting off the northern flank of the electorate of Waitakere and adding in areas from the electorate of Rodney around its southern boundary.

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