Mike Butterick is back as National’s Wairarapa electorate candidate and ready to answer the questions put forward by the region’s electorate.
One at the front of people’s minds is how to limit crime and his party’s policy to introduce boot camps for young offenders.
“It’s not primarily to punish them. It’s about removing them from the environment and intervening in a positive way to change the direction of travel,” he says.
Pushed on how long youth could be locked up Butterick says that policy detail is yet to be released, while insisting the problem has gotten out of hand.
“It’s not acceptable – everybody has rights, but with rights come responsibilities, and therefore there must be consequences.”
On the hot topic of climate change the National candidate stresses the need to “manage or adapt to the climate impacts that we’re witnessing and building resilience, whether it be our roads, how we manage our rivers, and all the challenges that will be looming.”
For Butterick, an important aspect of reaching carbon zero is tackling carbon emitters and changing behaviours at source. But he has a proviso.
“In terms of agricultural emissions, we’ve got to be very mindful that in our rush to get a medal round our necks on the world stage, we don’t actually score an own goal.”
Butterick also emphasises that creating emission controls could have a negative knock-on on our nation’s wealth.
“Trade export income is incredibly important to this country – it’s effectively how we pay our wages for our nurses, teachers, local policemen.”
