National's Wairarapa MP Mike Butterick delivered his maiden speech yesterday :
MIKE BUTTERICK (National—Wairarapa): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to start by formally congratulating you on your role. I assure you I will do my utmost to be a model MP.
You might ask what bought me, a sheep and beef farmer from the hills of the Wairarapa, to politics and to this House. It was a deep despair at the direction we were heading in as a country, and the need for our provincial communities to be heard. You're either at the table or you're on it, and it's never much fun being part of the menu. Provincial New Zealand needs to be listened to and trusted.
I would acknowledge Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, and the list MPs who reside in the Wairarapa: the Hon Kieran McAnulty and the newly minted Celia Wade-Brown. I look forward to working with you all on behalf of the Wairarapa electorate. I would also acknowledge and thank those that have previously represented our electorate.
The Wairarapa electorate—all 11,860 square kilometres—is three regions: the Wairarapa, Tararua, and Central Hawke's Bay. All three are fantastic places full of very special people, and it's one of the privileges of this role that I now have that I get to listen to their stories and witness their deeds, and it makes be proud to be allowed to be a part of who they are.
These regions are home to super-smart family businesses, both rural and urban, that are intertwined, as well as being a destination, hosting many special events such as the Golden Shears, that celebrates those with a passion for our shearing industry; Wings Over Wairarapa, that has the largest collection of working World War 1 planes in the world; Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre at Mount Bruce; Wheels with Attitude in Dannevirke; the Spring Fling in beautiful Central Hawke's Bay; the Castlepoint Beach Races; the Tukituki Trail; the Norsewood Viking Festival; the Woodville New Zealand Motocross GP; the Martinborough Fair; and many, many more.
In an electorate of beaches, baches, and bulldozers, a land of milk and honey, cropping and vineyards, sheep and cattle, rivers and trees, mountain ranges and plains, I can't cover all the places to see and all the events to attend, but it really is a place that all New Zealanders should explore. The best part: it's full of great people.
Provincial New Zealand is an amazing place to grow up. I grew up on a farm in mid-Canterbury in a family of seven, where I developed my love of farming. After attending school, I left to pursue a career in the farming sector. My first job was in the Wairarapa at Wairere, one of New Zealand's premiere sheep studs. I'm pleased to have Derek and Chris Daniels here today. At Wairere, I learnt how to be challenged and to challenge myself in the pursuit of excellence, and this is something I've never forgotten.
This is where I first met my wife, Rachel. We've been together for 33 years and married for almost 29 of them. It's very difficult to fully describe how big a part Rachel has played in my life. What I will say is that I'm incredibly fortunate to have you in it, and it's been quite some journey.
We have four children that I am also incredibly proud of: Jack, Annabel, Emma, and Charlotte. They have great values. They work hard, will give anything a go, and they know how to have fun. As a parent, I couldn't ask for more.
I would also acknowledge both my family and Rachel's family, some of who are here this afternoon. Thank you for all your help and support over the years.
I'm fortunate to have lived my dream, lived my passion—not everyone can say that. I've got an opportunity to give back to the community I've spent my life in. I'm a product of it. I've been shaped by those that are in it. Our provincial communities aren't complicated. They have strong values, they work hard, they have a strong sense of community, and they know how to have fun and enjoy each other's company.
Things are not right when I talk to a local dairy farmer about how they don't want to say what they do for a living when they go out, about their kids getting bullied at school because their parents are farming—it's not OK. When I talk to local sheep and beef farmers about their despair when contemplating their legislative fatigue, it's not OK. Why don't we talk about the 25,000 kilometres of waterways fenced off, over 36,000 culverts or bridges over waterway crossings by the dairy industry alone, the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on effluent systems per family farm, this countries 5,000th QE11 covenant that was registered in the Wairarapa in 2022, the community catchment groups, the millions of trees planted, the 2.8 million hectares of woody vegetation that's already on our farmland?
Understand that the rural community, despite all the rhetoric, are environmentalists. The relationship between the farming business, the family, and the environment is a reciprocal one. I acknowledge those efforts being made to protect and enhance the environment. The rural community has likely spent more on the environment than those that criticise them, those that flush the dunny without a thought about where it goes, in their plastic clothes, standing on their plastic carpet, that ignore their own impacts on the environment, and would rather point the finger. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Don't throw stones at your neighbours, if your own windows are made of glass". We as primary producers may not always get it right, but we are certainly trying. My message is simple: if, individually, we don't all make the choices that will inevitably come with a price tag, collectively nothing will change.
Our rural people are unique. They're the only sector that I know of that live in their business. They look out the window or walk out the door and it's there. Passion is what motivates the rural sector to do what they do, and it's the avalanche of previous rushed legislation that's eroding away the passion. That's not a great outcome.
Understand that provincial New Zealand is interconnected. The rural or farming community is greater than what is traditionally articulated in the statistics. The mechanics, the stock agents, the accountants, the freezing workers, the truck drivers, the shearers, the loggers, and others are all part of the sector and contribute to the local economy. The rural-urban divide in provincial New Zealand is a myth. We know each other and we respect each other.
The message to the farming community and all those that contribute to it is that this Government supports you, this Government has your back, and you should be proud to be a part of the food and fibre sectors that earn 82 percent of this country's export income—export income that pays the wages of our teachers, our nurses, and our policemen. Be proud of what you do and what you contribute to your communities, to your environment, and to the economy.
In the opening speeches of this 54th Parliament, I listened to the other side of the House and heard about inequality and injustice, but, much to my dismay, not once did I hear anything—not one word—about education. Inequality needs to be addressed in our classrooms. Surely, education is the pathway out of poverty, a pathway to employment, to being independent rather than dependent, yet not one word—not one. Our statistics are an indictment. Our most challenged communities have been failed; we can't even get our kids to school. Every day, every week, every month, is a day, a week, and a month that they're behind their peers and behind the rest of the world, and that's not OK.
In my community, one of our most challenged schools has initiated a programme on their own back that's had fantastic results. The improvement in attendance can only be described as stunningly successful. This is a local solution for a nationwide problem. That's what works: action, not rhetoric. We have students across New Zealand's most vulnerable communities where the pass rates for the most basic requirements are a national embarrassment. How can that be?
As Dame Joy Cowley said, "my heart remains with young children who are struggling readers, the children for whom a book is a closed secret". I might add, and there's no pun intended, that the same applies for those children for whom numbers are also a mystery. What chance have we given them to compete not only in the workforce but also on the world stage? It's not their fault. I'm not here to make a judgment; we have some amazing people in our education sector, but the facts are the facts, and they won't go away just because we choose to ignore them. This House has a collective responsibility to lift our ambitions and our aspirations for our children, to set the bar way higher than it is. They are our future, and we have been failing them. I would urge all of you across the House to stop rolling your eyes and gnashing your teeth and get in behind this Government's plan to reset the destination for our children. We need to get our kids to school and we need to teach the basics, and we need to teach them brilliantly. That's the responsibility of our parents, our communities, and this place; otherwise, we're heading for failure.
Inequality also isn't fixed by penalising someone that's worked incredibly hard, taken numerous risks, lived on the smell of an oily rag, and then finally become successful. Hard work should always be recognised and, ultimately, rewarded. The dichotomy is that we are very good at celebrating sporting success yet anyone that's even remotely successful we want to chop off at the knees. We need to have a quantum shift in our attitudes and learn how to celebrate success. That success is our inspiration for us and our children.
I would acknowledge our leader and Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, for your unwavering dedication to getting this country back on track. I would also thank all of my National Party colleagues and members for the support and help they have given me. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the National Party family. The values are strong, and they're the values I embrace.
Less government, not more. Our role is to solve problems, not create them; get the settings right, back up the bus, and leave people to get on with their lives. Personal responsibility: everyone has rights, but they also come with responsibility. Celebrating success, rewarding hard work: this country's been built on the backs off those that have sold, made, fixed, and grown stuff, and we need to remember that and to encourage ambition and celebrate success. I think about those past and present that have and do contribute, and I'd make the point that we have a responsibility to be extremely focused on outcomes and fiscal discipline, as they have been and are in their own lives. We spend their money—it's not Government money; it's theirs, and it needs to be respected. Success isn't defined by how much you spend; it's defined by the outcome you achieve. How could we have spent 80 percent more to achieve worse outcomes? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Stop looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist or hasn't even been clearly defined. This Government will have goalposts, will have outcomes, so we can measure our progress. This Government's focus on these key fundamentals is welcomed and long overdue.
Strong families and caring communities: in this electorate, I'm astounded at the number of people that voluntarily contribute. A recent example of this was Shear4u, held in the Wairarapa. Four shearers put themselves through immense physical and mental stress over 32 hours, all for charity, with an army of volunteers and sponsors from our community. That collective effort defines, for me, everything that's special about provincial New Zealand and the Wairarapa electorate.
I acknowledge the army of people that helped with my campaigns, that share the same values as me. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Some of you are here in the gallery or watching online, and my pledge to you is to represent those values that you and the party have as best I possibly can. I will also represent those values for all in my electorate, regardless of whether you voted for me or not. I look up at the gallery and I don't only see family and friends; I see a community, a community of people that contribute, and I thank you for that. You, and all those others that also give are the foundation that our communities are built on. Without you, without all of you, we don't have a community.
When my auntie told my late father, Gilby, who was terminally ill, who was a people person, who would give his shirt off his back to others, that I was standing for the Wairarapa seat, he cried. I think about that, about what that meant for him and to me, and that's the standard that I impose on myself. It's not about me; it's about people, about all of those in our community. That's what motivates me, and the minute it becomes about me, I'm in the wrong job. It's a privilege and an honour to represent the Wairarapa electorate, and I do not take it lightly. Judge me by my intent, my compassion, and my deeds. [Applause]
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