Haera Ra 2024: Wairarapa
As Ata Rangi approaches 45 years of growing wine in Wairarapa, Winemaker Helen Masters explores some of the highs and lows of 2024, including "The Vintage" of the past 30 years.
On Saturday, the party announced Masterton farmer Mike Butterick had been selected by local party members as the candidate for the Wairarapa seat currently held by Local Government and Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty.
Butterick says he is thrilled to be selected as the party’s candidate for the seat.
“This is my home and I want to make it even better as its next local MP in Chris Luxon’s National team,” he says.
“With a cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing interest rates fueled by Labour’s economic mismanagement and extra spending of $1 billion per week, families in the Wairarapa electorate are struggling to get by,” says Butterick.
“People here work incredibly hard but they’re wondering how on earth they’re going to find hundreds of dollars a week more to cover the mortgage or rent. That’s before they fill up the gas tank of the shopping trolley, made even harder by the fact grocery prices are rising at the highest rate in 33 years.”
Butterick, a sheep and beef farmer, began his career shepherding in Canterbury before moving to the Wairarapa more than 30 years ago.
He currently serves on the board of Wings Over Wairarapa and is an executive member of the Wairarapa Water Users group. He is also a member of the Wairarapa Federated Farmers’ executive.
He says the National Party backs farmers.
“As a Wairarapa farmer myself, I know how important our primary sector is to the economy, both here in the Wairarapa electorate and across New Zealand.
“Alongside our National team, I’ll advocate for farmers and farming communities to be able to get on with what they do best, without being burdened with more unworkable regulations.”
