Backbencher milks chance to flaunt her farming skills

Is MP Barbara Kuriger playing one-up-personship with party leader Bill English? After the PM’s ‘‘shear-off’’ with Sir David Fagan in Invercargill last week, Kuriger revealed at the Waitara Vintage Hay Day that she had milked a cow the old-fashioned way, and even drank some of the product straight from the bovine. The Taranaki-King Country MP said she grew up on a dairy farm and had 20 years of experience with milking. ‘‘You can take the dairy farmer off the farm but ...’’ she tweeted.