Labour's Kieran McAnulty is selling his diesel ute, after purchasing a new hybrid electric station wagon.
McAnulty won the Wairarapa seat last election and his Labour-branded ute gained attention when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hopped in for a spin.
"The time has come," the Wairarapa MP told 1News.
The 1997 Mazda Bounty ute will be auctioned on Trade Me , and it already has an opening bid of $2000.
“I’m not going to lie I don’t really want to sell it, but the time has come, and it’s really started to slow down,” he said.
McAnulty had the ute for 15 years and it had driven 463,000 kilometres.
The ute has a warrant and a registration, however McAnulty warned potential buyers the vehicle’s top speed is 80km/h, the radio sometimes falls out, and the heater doesn’t work.
“It’s like driving around in an oven,” he said.
The MP’s new vehicle is a 2021 Mitsubishi plug-in hybrid electric Outlander.
“I’ve got a vehicle that now has air conditioning and it’s just revolutionary technology, he said.
“I can now invite the Prime Minister into a vehicle that has air conditioning,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Government introduced incentives to reward those opting for electric and hybrid vehicles to boost uptake in low emission alternatives and to help reach the carbon-neutral 2050 goal.
McAnulty said he paid $58,000 for his new car and received a rebate of $5,750.
However, the Government faced criticism as it planned to introduce a sliding scale of fees next year on high emission vehicles.
Two months ago, thousands of farmers across New Zealand protested the Government’s clean car package scheme, along with other policies. The rural community is planning another protest later this year.
The protest organisers, Groundswell New Zealand’s calling for the “ute tax” to be scrapped.
When 1News asked McAnulty about how farmers would react to his new vehicle, he said other countries have much harsher clean car schemes than New Zealand.
“It’s not a case of a penalty for all utes, but a case of getting disincentivising people that use vehicles that emit high emissions,” he said.
“This is ultimately where we need to go, we need to look at efficient vehicles,” he said.
“I’ll be reducing my emissions by 90 per cent,” he said.
All the money raised from McAnulty’s Trade Me auction will be donated to the Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay and Tararua Rural Support trusts.
“This is a bittersweet moment,” he said.
McAnulty said he will miss the ute and the attachment people have with it.
SHARE ME