McAnulty campaigns to reclaim Wairarapa

Three years after losing Wairarapa, Kieran McAnulty is asking voters to return him as their electorate MP, arguing the role gives him greater weight to advocate for communities including Central Hawke’s Bay and Tararua.

The Labour list MP and campaign chair lost the seat to National’s Mike Butterick by 2,816 votes in 2023, after beating Butterick by 6,545 votes three years earlier.

The sprawling electorate stretches from Wairarapa through Tararua and into southern Hawke’s Bay, including Waipukurau and Waipawa, and now also takes in Ashhurst.

McAnulty told Hawke’s Bay News there was a significant difference between representing the region as a list MP and holding the electorate itself.

“I've been both a list MP and an electorate MP, and the weight that you carry behind your advocacy as an electorate MP is significantly more than what you have when you're a list MP.

“People can sort of dismiss you and ignore you to some degree as a list MP, but when you're the electorate MP, you're carrying the mandate from that region with you, and people have to listen, and you can simply get more things done.”

McAnulty said that was what motivated him to try to win the seat again.

“This is my home. I wouldn't stand in any other electorate.”

He said that as a senior Labour MP and the party’s campaign chair, he could have sought a safer seat elsewhere.

“If I wanted to seek a safe seat somewhere, I could have, but I didn't because doing things in my home region is why I got into politics and that's what motivates me and I would lose interest pretty quick if I was standing somewhere else.”

McAnulty described Wairarapa as “a really unusual seat” and said its different communities had their own priorities and perspectives.

He said Central Hawke’s Bay in particular had for too long felt “on the outside”.

“I make a point of whenever I'm in Central Hawke's Bay, I don't talk about Wairarapa. I talk about Central Hawke's Bay.

“I think that's important because it's a distinctly different part of the electorate. It's got its own priorities, its own issues.”

McAnulty said he had always tried to ensure Central Hawke’s Bay received “its fair share of attention” and said that was now being reflected back to him while campaigning.

He said some voters who did not intend to give Labour their party vote had told him they would support him as their local candidate.

“I've also been quite struck at the number of National Party supporters who said that they're going to vote for me locally because some of the feedback I've been getting is that they've seen me around more than the National candidate.”

Asked what he had learned from losing Wairarapa in 2023, McAnulty said he believed his result had still been strong given Labour’s performance nationally.

“We might not have won, but in the Wairarapa electorate, the Labour Party polled higher than it did across the country.

“So despite losing the seat, given the way that the tide was going out for the Labour Party, I actually think we campaigned quite well and got a pretty good result.”

McAnulty also pointed to his record when he held the electorate from 2020 to 2023.

He said he had secured funding for Route 52, wastewater infrastructure and local schools, and had continued advocating for communities across the electorate while serving as a list MP.

“That’s what motivates me. That’s why I’m in politics, and that’s why I’m asking people to vote for me to be their local MP, because I will simply be a more effective, more active, and a louder advocate for Central Hawke's Bay and the Tararua District.”

McAnulty said cost of living had been the most consistent issue raised with him during the campaign.

“I would say it is the defining issue, to be honest, because there's no other issue that has come up as consistently and frequently as cost of living.

“It doesn't matter what part of the electorate I'm in, or what forum I'm attending or participating in, cost of living always comes up.”

He said health, housing and education were also being raised by voters, but not with the same consistency.

As Labour’s campaign chair, McAnulty said the party had also changed its approach following the 2023 election.

“When we started planning for this campaign, it's probably about two years ago now, I remember the very first meeting that I chaired and we set a few principles.

“One of those was that we will only promise something we are confident that we can deliver.”

He said one lesson Labour had taken from its previous term in government was that it had “tried to do too many things at once”.

“So we've learned that lesson and now we've only promised what we're confident we can deliver.”

McAnulty said Labour had also deliberately focused its campaign on cost of living because that was what it believed mattered most to voters.

With five days left until election day, he said his focus for the remaining days was getting people to cast their ballots.

“We've been knocking on doors for many, many months, and I've been meeting with voters across the electorate for the last three years.

“I just haven't turned up because there's an election.”

He said he would continue campaigning across the electorate until election day.

“My message in the remaining few days is to just try and get as many people out to vote.”