Mike Butterick MP for Wairarapa and Catherine Wedd MP for Tukituki give maiden speeches to Parliament

Two new National MPs, Mike Butterick MP for Wairarapa and Catherine Wedd MP for Tukituki, delivered their maiden speeches on Wednesday.

New Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd has issued a rousing challenge to her own party in her maiden speech to Parliament.

During her 15-minute speech, which came late on the second day of parliamentary sittings on Wednesday, she said there are “several projects for Hawke’s Bay that I support and will fight for, and want to put on in this House”.

“The four-lane expressway between Hastings and Napier has to happen, a new Hawke’s Bay Hospital must be a priority, and water storage in Hawke’s Bay is an absolute must,” she said. “If we’re going to continue to grow as a region, these three infrastructure projects are critical to Hawke’s Bay’s future.

“I will ensure I will I always back provincial New Zealand,” she said. “I won’t accept mediocrity, I’m aspirational for our country in New Zealand, and now is the time to serve, and get to work.”

Hers was the second of six introductions of new National Party and therefore Government MPs late on Wednesday, the second day of Parliament sittings in the New Year, five of them from provincial North Island electorates.

It was kicked-off by Wairarapa MP Mike Butterick, whose electorate includes Dannevirke and Central Hawke’s Bay, and the pair was followed by Bay of Plenty’s Tom Rutherford, Northland’s Grant McCallum, List MP Nancy Lu and New Plymouth’s David MacLeod.

Both Wedd and Butterick focused strongly on the rural economy and improving standards of education. Butterick, who was a leader of the 50 Shades of Green movement calling for a halt to afforestation of productive farmland, reassured farmers that “this Government supports you, this Government has your back” and that they should be proud to be part of the food and fibre sectors he said earn 82 per cent of New Zealand’s export income.

On education he said: “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,” he said.

Both also referred to family backgrounds, Wedd talking of having been to schools at both ends of the decile and having learned how to overcome adversity, noting the achievements of her elder brother, who had never been able to speak but had been involved in the trucking industry and being now on a dairy farm.

Butterick said of his own lifetime in the farming sector: “I’m fortunate to have lived my dream, lived my passion, not everyone can say that, and I’ve got an opportunity to give back to the community I’ve spent my life in.”

Of the others in the election sweep of change in Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa, Napier National Party MP Katie Nimon delivered her maiden speech on December 6, and Labour Māori electorate MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel is expected to have her day in February. On Wednesday afternoon, two new National MPs representing two electorates in Hawke’s Bay will give their maiden speeches to Parliament.

Watch the livestream as Mike Butterick MP for Wairarapa and Catherine Wedd MP for Tukituki address the house.

When an MP enters Parliament for the first time, they are given the opportunity to deliver a 15-minute address called their maiden speech.