Farmers, MPs set for John Luxton memorial match

The event involves light-hearted but competitive rugby and netball games involving dairy farmers, sector leaders, MPs and a former All Black.

Parents, children and grandchildren, and people from rural communities and cities are all playing together in dairy sector versus parliamentary teams.

The DairyNZ John Luxton Memorial Event is in honour of the late John Luxton. He was inaugural chair of DairyNZ, former Agriculture Minister and the last Pākehā Māori Affairs Minister. He was regarded by many as a true leader in the New Zealand dairy sector, also being former chair of Tatua Dairy Company, and co-chair of the Waikato River Authority.

Luxton was very active in encouraging young Māori to work in the dairy sector and his family created a trust to support young Māori into agriculture jobs.

DairyNZ are organising the free community event on behalf of the sector - aiming to bring the community together to celebrate his life, showcase the strength of the dairy sector, and help forge some strong relationships between the competitors.

A key goal is to attract young people and career changers into the dairy sector. The sector needs 4,000 more people and the event dovetails with DairyNZ's campaign to showcase the many positives of working in dairy.

The event is at Campbell Park, Morrinsville (a nod to Luxton being born in Morrinsville) and is on Saturday 24 September. The netball match starts around 1.30pm and rugby around 3pm.

Luxton's son Richard is playing in the rugby, DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle is on the wing and there's a full front from from Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard, Wayne Langford, and Richard McIntyre. There's also a great cohort from the local Young Farmers branch.

MPs expected to play include Mark Mitchell, Louise Upston, Meka Whaitiri, Nicole McKee and Barbara Kuriger. Former MPs Alfred Ngaro and Kris Faafoi and former All Black Piri Weepu will bring extra energy to the team.

For the netball, as well as the MPs, there's radio personality Rowena Duncum playing alongside the likes of Dairy Environment Leaders chair Melissa Slattery and Pouarua Farms CEO Jenna Smith.

Young Māori dairy farming leaders who are keen to actively encourage other young people to get into farming are in the dairy sector rugby team.

Tangaroa Walker created his own Farm4Life programme which offers how-to information for people starting out in dairy farming and Quinn Morgan is Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award winner. He also recently won the Emerging Leader Award at the Primary Industries New Zealand Awards.