Defending his Wairarapa seat, high-profile government minister and one-time volunteer firefighter Kieran McAnulty has been in the thick of it in recent months with an issue that’s troubling many of his constituents – traffic holdups.
The prolonged works on SH2 between Masterton and Carterton with the construction of new roundabouts and safety barriers, along with lowering the speed limit to 80kmph all the way to Featherston is widely considered unreasonable, and McAnulty admits “it’s been a source of immense frustration for me”.
“The consultation process [undertaken by] Waka Kotahi was appalling. They had a very clear view from the community, there were numerous letters from me, and they went ahead and did it anyway.”
On the topic of crime, McAnulty says it’s not just about adding more police numbers – child poverty needs to be tackled at the same time, and “that requires investment, and it requires pretty intimate and detailed interventions”.
McAnulty also recognises there’s no instant fix for successfully curbing youth crime, “because those youth that are offending, that didn’t happen overnight – that’s a flow on effect from decisions that were made a long time ago”.
