New minister O’Connor has farming in his blood
As one of the few Labour politicians with a farming background, it was always a safe bet Damien O’Connor would become Minister of Agriculture.
With the splitting up of the Ministry for Primary Industries, he is also the Minister of Biosecurity, Food Safety, Rural Communities and Associate Minister for Trade and Export Growth.
The ministry will be split into separate ministries for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
The new Forestry Minister is NZ First’s Shane Jones and Labour’s Stuart Nash will take on Fisheries.
‘‘It’s a huge honour to take on responsibility for what is New Zealand’s proudest and biggest sector. I hope to encourage a new strategic approach given the disruption Primary Industries has been through,’’ O’Connor said.
Horticulture New Zealand president Julian Raine congratulated O’Connor and said the sector looked forward to working with the new Labour-led coalition government.
First elected to Parliament in 1993 for the West Coast-Tasman seat, the 59-year-old O’Connor was Associate Minister of Agriculture from 2001-2005, Minister of Rural Affairs (2004-8) and Minister of Tourism (2005-8) in the Helen Clark-led government.
The much travelled MP, who can drive more than 1000 kilometres a week visiting his electorate, came off a dairy farm near Westport.
At Lincoln University he studied agriculture and commerce, before heading across the Tasman where he worked in the mining industry for two years.
After five years he returned to the family farm near the mouth of the Buller River, where he became a fourth-generation farmer.
He has won the West Coast Young Farmer of the Year competition, is a keen skier, mountain biker and whitewater rafter, and enjoys jetboating and motorsports.