‘Gave it everything’: Kieran McAnulty on losing Wairarapa electorate

Kieran McAnulty speaking at an orchard near Napier earlier this year. Photo / Warren Buckland

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty has vowed to keep fighting for the Wairarapa region as a list MP, after losing his electorate seat to National’s Mike Butterick.

Butterick won the Wairarapa race on Saturday night with 17,908 votes to McAnulty’s 15,427 – a margin of almost 2500.

Special votes are still to be counted but McAnulty conceded to his opponent on the night, visiting to share a beer and congratulate Butterick, a farmer from Homebush, near Masterton.

McAnulty, also from Masterton, will return to Parliament as a list MP.

“We gave it everything,” he said, of losing the electorate race.

“Obviously [the result was] disappointing but there is no reason to dwell on that and mourn, it is just the way it goes.

“I have a new role as an MP in Opposition and I am just going to give that my all now.”

McAnulty was a minister in the Labour Government and has risen steadily through the party rankings since becoming an MP in 2017.

Farmer Mike Butterick (left) has become Wairarapa MP for the first time. Photo / Dave Murdoch

For the past five months, he has been the lead minister for the Hawke’s Bay cyclone recovery and has pledged to continue working hard for the Wairarapa electorate, which includes much of Central Hawke’s Bay.

“That is why I got into politics in the first place.

“If the role I found myself in didn’t give me the opportunity to advocate for my region, then I would probably go and look for something else, because politics without doing local stuff does not appeal to me much at all.

“[Mike and I] have the opportunity to work together for the betterment of the entire electorate, inclusive of Central Hawke’s Bay and Tararua.”

As in many electorates across the country, the result in Wairarapa saw a big swing from the 6500 winning margin McAnulty had over Butterick in 2020. The electorate had been held by National for 15 years before that.

McAnulty has previously been touted as a potential Labour leader but he poured cold water on that, again stating “nothing has changed, not interested”.

He spoke to the crowd at Butterick’s election event in Masterton on Saturday night and acknowledged it had been “the greatest privilege of my life to be the local MP, and now that privilege is passed to Mike”.

“I said that if I were to lose the role, then I’m pleased that it has gone to a bloke like Mike.”