National candidate Catherine Wedd focused on issues and not Tukituki incumbent Anna Lorck

Catherine Wedd, left, pictured with then-Prime Minister John Key in 2016. Photo / File

The respective mobile phone numbers give a hint of Anna Lorck and Catherine Wedd’s shared past.

Just one digit differs, befitting their days working together at Attn Marketing PR in Havelock North.

Now the two women are pitted head-to-head, with Lorck the incumbent Labour MP for Tukituki and Wedd confirmed as National candidate for the October 14 general election.

Wedd said she was focused on the electorate and national issues rather than her former colleague.

“People can read into it what they want, but Hawke’s Bay is a small place and you cross paths with people in your career, particularly in marketing and media in Hawke’s Bay,’’ Wedd told Hawke’s Bay Today.

The would-be MP understands the public interest. She gets that folk might want to make this a confrontational campaign and encourage the pair to air any potential grievances.

But, as Wedd noted, the two women are different people, with different backgrounds and different philosophies on how to make sure Tukituki and New Zealand achieve their potential. The common ground is their shared desire to be the local MP.

Wedd, a longtime journalist, has had colleagues and friends compete for the same jobs as her before - or lobby for interests from another side - and sees the race for Tukituki no differently.

Nor is she of the opinion that misogyny is rife in politics - or in public debate - and that female MPs and candidates face levels of abuse to which men are spared.

“No. No. Not at all,’’ said Wedd.

“We’re very aware of the pressures and challenges that are involved in politics. I obviously worked down in Wellington [for TVNZ] and was in that environment, so I do know how politics works and we have made this decision together as a family.’’

Wedd said she was always destined for politics. It ran in the family, she was a youth MP while at secondary school and then studied it at university.

But the impetus to get involved now appears to have come from her children.

She has fears about the world they - and their peers - will inherit and believes the National Party are the people best-equipped to make it better.

She comes to the political stage from the primary sector and expressed a keen interest in ensuring Tukituki’s big agricultural employers can prosper in the future. But it’s closer to home where the real drive for change comes from.

“Education is an area I’m really passionate about as well - with having four children - and I just feel the government is letting our education sector down with 60 per cent of New Zealand children not attending school regularly,’’ Wedd said.

“But, in relation to Tukituki, we have a large amount of decile 1 and 2 schools. Out of 61 schools we’ve got 25 that are decile 1 and 2.

“That decile system is changing this year, but I think our education system is failing these children and that’s a really strong message coming out of the National Party.

“When education is the path to a job and the key to breaking the cycle of dependency in this country, I think we’re failing our most vulnerable.

“If we’re going to lift performance in his country, it has to start on the front lines with our classrooms and our teachers and spending billions of dollars on bureaucrats and ministries in Wellington is not achieving the results we need to get our children ahead and this country prosperous.’’

Lorck did not respond to a request to participate in this story.