Damien O’Connor Criticises Budget 2026 as ‘Miserable’ for Rural New Zealand
A miserable budget that didn’t deliver much for anyone.
The Hound was reminded of this by a mate of his attending the recent Beef + Lamb annual meeting in Timaru, which some MPs turned up to.
Ag Minister Damien O’Connor couldn’t attend because he was under security watch due to the Christchurch shootings and was replaced by a MPI policy wonk.
However, the Nats’ climate change spokesman Todd Muller was invited to speak on his work and seemed to impress the audience.
However, the same can’t be said for NZ First list MP Mark Patterson who was not down to speak. But when given the opportunity – by all reports – he completely misread the room and went on a long, boring rant about how great the current government was.
