Chris Bishop urges Kieran McAnulty to give up his ‘gas guzzling’ ute

New Zealand

2 Dec, 2020 08:59 PM4 minutes to read

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Labour’s Kieran McAnulty called out by National’s Chris Bishop for driving a ‘gas guzzler’ truck amid climate emergency. Video / TVNZ

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty has been called out over his ‘gas guzzling’ ute, the day after Jacinda Ardern declared a climate emergency in New Zealand.

National MP Chris Bishop took McAnulty to task over the Wairarapa MP’s ageing ute, asking when he was going to give up running the “gas guzzler” in favour of a more environmentally friendly ride.

Speaking to TVNZ’s Breakfast programme, the two men sparred over their personal vehicles and their party’s policies on climate change.

McAnulty trumpeted the Government’s actions, saying: “Yesterday’s declaration of a climate change emergency, in isolation, it’s not enough. But it’s still important as part of the package as to where we’re heading.”

Bishop, who had barely suppressed a grin as his colleague spoke, leapt at the opportunity to question McAnulty’s green credentials.

“But mate, are you going to give up the ute?” Bishop asked. “The 420,000km red ute, the big gas guzzler.”

He was referring to the old Mazda ute with a missing back window that carried McAnulty throughout his successful Wairarapa campaign, even transporting the PM around on a wet Wairarapa day.

The ute even played host to the Prime Minister. Photo / Amelia Wade

McAnulty defended his car, saying it didn’t go fast enough to guzzle gas.

“No, no, no, you’ve got me wrong, Chris. He’s got me all wrong. The thing is in order to guzzle gas you’ve got to be able to go over 100km/h — the ute can’t.”

Bishop then declared that he drove an electric car.

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“I drive an electric Leaf, a little Nissan Leaf, around so who’s doing the most for climate change?”

McAnulty said that Bishop’s diversion was a “nice try” but the National MP took aim at the Labour Government.

“We think [it’s] reasonably hollow, because you can declare something but unless there’s actual action you’re not going to get very far. So you can say there’s an emergency but you’ve got to do something about it,” Bishop said, arguing that he was in favour of combating climate change but that National was “more about the action, not so much about the words”.

McAnulty retorted by saying “pot, kettle” and accused Bishop of playing politics.

“So you haven’t done enough so we’re not gonna sign a climate change emergency declaration? Seems a bit political to me.”

Chris Bishop appeared to relish the opportunity to put the boot in. Photo / Breakfast

Parliament yesterday officially declared a climate emergency in New Zealand – a move Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an “acknowledgement of the next generation”.

It was a “declaration based on science”, she told MPs in the House.

After she moved the motion – which was opposed by National and Act, but supported by the Greens and the Māori Party – Ardern announced a suite of new measures in a bid to curb climate change.

The Government now requires all its agencies and ministries to exclusively buy electric vehicles and will mandate all public sector buildings to be up to a “green standard”.

This is part of the Government’s goal to make the entire public sector carbon neutral by 2025.

“It is up to us to make sure we demonstrate a plan for action, and a reason for hope,” Ardern said – she was the one who move the motion in the House.

She had previously said that simply declaring a climate emergency on its own wasn’t enough and it needed to be backed up with substance.

That was a sentiment shared by National, whose climate change spokesman Stuart Smith told MPs that Ardern’s motion was “nothing but virtue signalling”.

But Ardern argued that the policies announced by the Government today showed that the motion was not just empty words.

“Globally, we have entered an age of action,” she said, before calling on MPs to get on the “right side of history”.