The electorate is usually a reasonably safe National seat, and was held for long periods by John Banks (1981–1999) and Phil Heatley (1999–2014), before being won in the 2014 election by Shane Reti.

In the 2020 election Reti narrowly lost the seat to Labour's Emily Henderson.

[2] Together with increased urbanisation in Christchurch and Nelson, the changes proved very disruptive to existing electorates.

The electorate includes the following population centres: It extends from Hikurangi in the north to Ruatangata and Maungatapere in the west and Waipu and Langs Beach in the south.

[10] Shane Reti stood for National in the 2014 election and had a large margin over Labour's Kelly Ellis.

1Donnelly resigned in February 2008 when appointed High Commissioner to the Cook Islands Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.

Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent.

Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent.

Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent.

Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent.