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Barbara Kuriger
MP
Kuriger in 2023
12th Deputy Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 December 2023
SpeakerGerry Brownlee
Preceded byGreg O'Connor
Senior Whip of the National Party
In office
21 March 2018 – 10 November 2020
DeputyMatt Doocey
LeaderSimon Bridges
Todd Muller
Judith Collins
Preceded byJami-Lee Ross
Succeeded byMatt Doocey
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Taranaki-King Country
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 September 2014
Preceded byShane Ardern
Personal details
Born1961 (age 62–63)
Ōpunake, New Zealand
Political partyNational
SpouseLouis Kuriger
ProfessionFarmer

Barbara Joan Kuriger (born 1961)[1] is a New Zealand politician who has served as Deputy Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives since December 2023. A member of the National Party, Kuriger was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Taranaki-King Country since 2014.

Early life

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Kuriger was born in Ōpunake and was raised on a dairy farm. She married Louis Kuriger, a dairy farmer. They have three children.[2][3]

Farming career

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Kuriger is a farmer, shareholder and director of three family-owned farming businesses. With her husband Louis, she won the Taranaki Sharemilker of the Year title in 1978.[4] Kuriger has served on the boards of several companies and institutions including DairyNZ, Dairy Training Limited, Primary ITO, New Zealand Young Farmers, Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, Te Kauta, Venture Taranaki Trust, the Dairy Women's Network, and the New Zealand Rural Games Trust.[5] In 2012, she won the title of Dairy Woman of the Year.[6]

Kuriger was criticised for her role as a member of the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre board in 2015 when it was under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Kuriger had been a board member from 2012 to 2014 but denied knowledge of any misdoing; Labour MP David Cunliffe said Kuriger could not claim to be ignorant of what had occurred.[7]

Kuriger is a former director of Oxbow Dairies Ltd which was charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty and neglect. Kuriger ceased being a director in 2014, while her husband Louis was still a director until late 2018 during which period the bulk of the charges were laid and offences committed. Their son, Tony, who was also a director of the company, pleaded guilty in January 2020 for causing "prolonged and severe pain" to the animals in his care.[8]

Political career

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2014–2017 51st Taranaki-King Country 58 National
2017–2020 52nd Taranaki-King Country 28 National
2020–2023 53rd Taranaki-King Country 20 National
2023–present 54th Taranaki-King Country 36 National

In April 2014, Kuriger was selected as National's candidate in Taranaki-King Country to replace the retiring Shane Ardern.[6] During the 2014 New Zealand general election, she won Taranaki-King Country for National by a margin of 16,773 votes.[9] Her maiden statement, given on 21 October 2014, was the second to be given in the 51st Parliament's address in reply debate.[2] In her first term, Kuriger served as deputy chair of the health committee and as a member of the primary production committee, and was a junior National Party whip.[10]

Reelected at the 2017 New Zealand general election,[11] she served as the National Party's senior whip from 2018 to 2020.[10][12] In March 2018 a member's bill in her name seeking to impose penalties on the parents of children before the youth court was debated and lost.[13][14] Briefly in 2020 she also the party's spokesperson for food safety, rural communities, and women, and chaired Parliament's primary production committee.[10] After the 2020 New Zealand general election, in which she won a third term,[15] she was appointed spokesperson for agriculture, energy and resources, and food safety.[16] She chaired the governance and administration committee from 2020 to 2021.[10] When Christopher Luxon became the party leader in 2021, he appointed her as spokesperson for agriculture, biosecurity and food safety.[17]

In October 2022 Kuriger resigned from her agriculture, biosecurity, and food safety portfolios due to mismanaging conflicts of interest with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) over the prosecution of her husband and son.[18] In December 2022, hundreds of pages of emails between Kuriger and MPI, obtained by Newsroom under the Official Information Act, revealed a pattern of personal attacks on MPI officials in relation to animal mistreatment charges filed against her son Tony. MPI commissioned Mike Heron KC to review its conduct in the case. That review cleared the ministry of any wrongdoing and found the investigation into Tony Kuriger was not motivated by political purposes, despite the Kurigers' repeated private and public claims to the contrary. [19] Kuriger refused to resign from Parliament over the incident.[20] Following a January 2023 shadow cabinet reshuffle, Kuriger was allocated the conservation portfolio but was moved outside of the shadow cabinet with no ranking.[21]

National returned to government for the first time in six years at the 2023 New Zealand general election. Kuriger retained her electorate by a margin of 14,355 votes, defeating Labour candidate Angela Roberts,[22] and was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.[23]

References

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  1. ^ "Roll of members of the New Zealand House of Representatives, 1854 onwards" (PDF). New Zealand Parliament. 24 May 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 September 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Kuriger, Barbara - Address in Reply". New Zealand Parliament. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  3. ^ "Kuriger, Barbara - Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading". New Zealand Parliament. 21 September 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  4. ^ "First family to claim second generation of awards success". Rural News Group. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  5. ^ "Rural Games to get off the ground in Queenstown". Mountain Scene. Allied Press. 17 June 2014. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Kuriger National's pick". Taranaki Daily News. Stuff. 7 April 2014. Archived from the original on 2 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  7. ^ Lee, Hannah (16 September 2015). "Kuriger must have known about Taratahi 'rorts' – Cunliffe". Taranaki Daily News. Stuff. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  8. ^ Kilmister, Sam (28 January 2020). "Politician's son pleads guilty to ill-treating dairy cows; charges against husband dropped". Stuff. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020.
  9. ^ "Official Count Results – Taranaki-King Country". Electoral Commission. 10 October 2014. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d "Kuriger, Barbara - New Zealand Parliament". Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  11. ^ "Taranaki-King Country – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 17 January 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  12. ^ McCulloch, Craig; Scotcher, Katie (10 November 2020). "Shane Reti becomes new deputy leader of the National Party". RNZ. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Four members' bills drawn from ballot". RNZ. 22 February 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  14. ^ "Oranga Tamariki (Parent's and Guardian's Responsibility) Amendment Bill — First Reading". New Zealand Parliament. 21 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Taranaki-King Country – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  16. ^ "National Party leader Judith Collins reveals caucus reshuffle". RNZ. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  17. ^ Small, Zane (6 December 2021). "Judith Collins plunges to #19 in Christopher Luxon's reshuffle as Shane Reti, Chris Bishop keep top roles". Newshub.
  18. ^ "National MP Barbara Kuriger drops agriculture portfolios over 'blurred line' in family dispute". Stuff. 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  19. ^ Daalder, Marc (17 December 2022). "MP's emails show pattern of personal attacks on ministry". Newsroom. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  20. ^ "Kuriger says no plans to step down after family scandal aired". RNZ. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  21. ^ "National reshuffle: Luxon promotes former leaders Judith Collins, Todd Muller". The New Zealand Herald. 19 January 2023. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  22. ^ "Taranaki-King Country – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 3 November 2023. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  23. ^ "Appointments — Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers - New Zealand Parliament". Retrieved 18 December 2024.
[edit]
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Taranaki-King Country
2014–present 		Incumbent
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