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Two prominent rural personalities easily won their parliamentary seats on National tickets Saturday night.
The inaugural Dairy Woman of the Year, Barbara Kuriger romped home in Taranaki-King Country; she polled 20,000 votes, 15,000 more than her nearest rival.
Former Fonterra executive Todd Muller breezed to victory in Bay of Plenty; he polled 20,000 votes and enjoyed a margin of 14,000 votes.
Kuriger will fill Shane Ardern's gumboots; Ardern retired after 16 years in politics.
In 2012 Kuriger was awarded the inaugural Dairy Women of the Year which came with a Fonterra scholarship to participate in the Global Women's breakthrough leadership program, from which she graduated in September 2013.
She also served as a board member for DairyNZ until her nomination.
Muller, 45 served as a general manager for Zespri; he resigned as group director cooperative affairs for Fonterra after his nomination.
He is a Waikato University councillor, and sits on the boards of Plant and Food Research and the Sustainable Business Council.
With a general election under five weeks away, Rural News is asking major political parties about their policies and positions on key issues facing the primary sector. We will run their responses to each question over the next four weeks. The ACT Party and the Greens didn't respond in time.
National Party trade spokesman Todd McClay will become the party’s agriculture spokesperson, National leader Christopher Luxon announced today.
National's agriculture spokesperson says his absolute priority, if his party gets into power, is to get rid of what he calls the 'punitive model' of engagement between government and farmers.
OPINION: The Hound notes that in all the media hoo-ha over outgoing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her replacement by a Richie Cunningham from Happy Days look-alike, news that another quitter was back went under the radar.
OPINION: This has been a bloody tough year for farmers.
Farmer-owned fertiliser company, Ballance Agri Nutrients is welcoming National’s plan to negotiate security agreements with key supplier countries to protect New Zealand-bound products from export restrictions and greater supply chain certainty.
Carrfields has announced the appointment of Stu Hall to the newly created role of chief operating officer, Carrfields Ltd, reflecting the continued growth of their agribusinesses and the need to ensure the company has the leadership capacity and support in place as it pursues the emerging opportunities ahead.
New Zealand's role is not to compete with Indian growers, according to NZ Apples and Pears.
The potato industry is celebrating the success of two rising stars - James Blair, the 2026 Young Grower of the Year and runner-up and innovation award winner, Amber Davy.
Twenty-eight emerging leaders from across the horticulture sector spent two days last month learning valuable skills and connecting with industry experts.
There are five entrants in this year’s Young Horticulturist of the Year, competing in a series of technical, practical, business and leadership challenges.
