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Elections / 2026 / Hutt South / Benjamin Wylie-van Eerd
B
2026 general election
Standing for Hutt South

Benjamin Wylie-van Eerd

Kind
Electorate only
Source
elections-wikipedia
As of
9 Jun 2026

Background

Research run #169 · 7 May 2026
Every claim below traces to a verbatim quote in the cited source. Click any footnote [1] in the prose, or expand the citation index below, to see where the fact came from.

Benjamin Wylie-van Eerd is a New Zealand politician and scientist associated with The Opportunities Party (TOP), having stood as a candidate for the Hutt South electorate [14][18].

Wylie-van Eerd has a background as a scientist [1], and according to a single reputable secondary source, he worked at the Robinson Research Institute [2] and has also been described as a career scientist [4] and researcher [7]. He is reported to have studied at the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington [12][13]. According to the same source, he was a co-author of a research article on PX-phase lead titanate, dated 20 April 2011 [5].

According to a single reputable secondary source, Wylie-van Eerd was made redundant as a result of science funding cuts [8]. He is also reported to have served as a workplace union delegate [11] and to have taken on a union member leadership role through organisational change [10]. Additionally, he has been described as a mediator [6].

According to a single reputable secondary source, Wylie-van Eerd served as a spokesperson for the Save Science Coalition [9], a civic role connected to his experience of science sector funding reductions.

He is reported to have been affiliated with The Opportunities Party (TOP) [17][18] and stood as the party's candidate for the Hutt South electorate in 2023 [3][14]. According to a single reputable secondary source, he was again confirmed as the Opportunity Party candidate for Hutt South from 20 March 2026 [15][16].

Generated 16 Jun 2026 · model claude-sonnet-4-6
AI-generated biography. Assembled by an LLM from public sources (Wikipedia, parliament register, Beehive, news archives). Every claim is backed by a verbatim quote in one of the cited sources below and tagged confirmed, unverified, or disputed by corroboration. Use as a starting reference, not a final source — cross-check anything load-bearing.
1 confirmed 17 unverified 0 disputed
Verify the bio — expand the citation index 18 sourced claims

Education

Career

Political offices

  • [15]
    Held the office of Candidate for Hutt South electorate (Opportunity) (from 20 March 2026). unverified
  • [14]
    Held the office of Candidate for Hutt South electorate (from 2023). unverified
  • [16]
    Held the office of Candidate for Opportunity (Hutt South). unverified

Party affiliation

Civic roles & honours

Looked for, not found

  • No public record found of Benjamin Wylie-van Eerd's specific doctoral degree details (institution, year, thesis title). The Victoria University of Wellington profile and Academia.edu page indicate graduate student status at VUW School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, but no specific PhD conferral date or thesis title was found in accessible sources.
  • No public record found of Benjamin Wylie-van Eerd's specific work in the Netherlands (employer, dates, role) beyond the TOP candidate profile's mention of "experience working in New Zealand and the Netherlands".

The agent checked these topics across the allowed public sources but could not find verbatim-quotable evidence. Absence doesn't rule the fact out — it just means no journalist-accessible source covered it at run time.