Latest News

Agricultural emissions MoU a positive step

October 04, 2022 Share

The new memorandum of understanding between the Government and agribusiness leaders as part of the Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions is a step in the right direction, National’s Agriculture spokesperson Barbara Kuriger says.

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Barbara's Beat No.15

September 15, 2022 Share

VISITORS APLENTY

I’ve hosted quite a few National MP visitors in Taranaki/King Country during the past month. First up was Leader Christopher Luxon on August 11.

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$100 million cost to another epic fail

September 15, 2022 Share

‘Putting the cart before the horse’ could have been written especially for this Labour Government.

Time and time again over the past five years, they’ve made regulation announcements and set implementation deadlines but failed to put into place any practical process or reasoning behind them.

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Let's measure what matters

September 12, 2022 Share

Governments tend to measure the ‘health’ of their country by their economic growth through GDP (gross domestic product).

GDP is the market value of the final goods and services we produce, minus the costs to make/export them, and after deducting what we’ve spent on imports from other countries — all in a specific time period.

New Zealand is considered to be a highly developed free market economy with a large GDP for our small population. In other words, wealthy, in comparison to many other countries.

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On a road to nowhere

September 12, 2022 Share

Tyre shops in my electorate are flat out these days thanks to the state of our roads.

Bent and buckled wheel rims from blown out tyres, have become part of the daily stock in trade for these businesses. Businesses that normally only see this kind of damage from customers once or twice a month.

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David Parker must delay winter grazing regulations

September 08, 2022 Share

The Government is about to pile up to $100 million of unnecessary compliance costs onto farmers because its freshwater regulations are more than a year overdue, National’s Agriculture spokespeople Barbara Kuriger and Joseph Mooney say.

“Under Environment Minister David Parker’s regulations, farmers must have a certified freshwater farm plan for winter grazing on sloping land. If they do not have a certified plan, they must obtain a resource consent,” Barbara Kuriger says.

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Why food and fibre has a strong future

August 31, 2022 Share

We all eat and that gives everyone a role to play in our food chain. While there are a series of environmental issues to solve, farmers and growers have made good progress over the years.

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Welfare that works warranted

August 22, 2022 Share

For practical people like me, numbers are comforting.

They can confirm either a problem, or a solution, depending on the context being applied.

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Starting our pasture to plate story

August 16, 2022 Share

Like many of you, I’m so over the uninformed knockers of primary industries.

People who are swayed by a headline, a social media post or a slick advertising campaign, without any in-depth knowledge of why sectors within it, operate the way they do.

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Science the key to our decisions

August 10, 2022 Share

“A set of principles shapes National’s primary sector decision-making,” says agriculture spokesperson Barbara Kuriger.

Fresh from last weekend’s annual conference, she says: “The sector is currently worth $52 billion to New Zealand and growing. It underpins our economy.

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