Rangitīkei Labour candidate Zalfiqar Butt wants to change the perception of the electorate

Zalfiqur Butt served on the Palmerston North City Council from 2019 to 2022.

Labour’s candidate in one of the country’s most safe National seats wants to change the perception that Rangitīkei is “a farmer’s electorate”.

The Rangitīkei electorate hasn’t had a Labour MP since 1938, and Zalfiqar Butt is the latest to try to win it for his party.

A small business owner and PhD graduate in natural resource management, he has been a member of the Labour Party for 23 years and served on the Palmerston North City Council from 2019 to 2022.

“There are many working-class people and there are industries and other services. There should be a voice for them who cares for their basic necessities.”

One example was public transport, which was currently lacking in Rangitīkei, he said.

“Transport poverty” was a major issue that needed to be solved.

“It generates unemployment, lack of social interaction and a lack of economic activity.

“I will be fighting for a general service that connects all these rural areas.”

Rangitīkei farmers were good people who worked hard for their families and for their communities, Butt said.

“We need to create an understanding between the general public and the farmers that they are our friends and we are their friends.

“We are all one and we have to work together to solve problems.”

Butt said he visited Taumaranui recently, an area with a “continuing decline in the population”.

“I’m sorry to say, it looks like a ghost town. We have to do something about that.

“I saw dozens of railway carriages sitting there. I asked someone and they didn’t know how many years they had been there.

“It’s a resource which is being depleted, and we need to lobby for these kinds of things - they will uplift these towns and attract more people.”

The current Rangitīkei MP, National’s Ian McKelvie, has held the seat since 2011.

He is retiring at the end of his term.

With the exception of Bruce Beetham (Social Credit), who was the electorate’s MP from 1978 to 1981, National has held the seat since 1938.

The only Labour MP in the 161-year history of the electorate was Ormond Wilson from 1935 to 1938.

Butt said he didn’t know a lot about National’s Rangitīkei candidate, Suze Redmayne.

“I’ve seen one of her photos at the eclair shop in Ohakune.”

Other candidates in the electorate are Act’s Andrew Hoggard and the Green Party’s John Cockrem.

Butt will officially launch his campaign on July 29 in Feilding.

“Then, I will be on the road, on the streets, everywhere.

“When I was in Taumaranui, I was told by the community that no senior politicians in the last two terms have actually visited.

“I want senior ministers to visit this electorate and see what is happening and what is required.”

This year’s general election will be held on October 14.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.