Kuriger abused position, still selected as National Party candidate

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Do the #nznationalparty really think it’s ok to reselect Barbara Kuriger as their candidate for Taranaki-King Country? I’m really surprised they did.

They don’t seem to care about serious flaws in the character and actions of their candidates. Kuriger is just another in the long line of people being selected who are not suitable.

Cattle were euthanased on the Kuriger farms and her husband and son charged by MPI for animal cruelty. Her son was found guilty.

Kuriger used her work email to send 50-plus emails to MPI and others and also claimed political interference while the investigation was being done.

She abused her position as an MP to try to influence the outcome of an investigation over a period of time.

She was the Nats’ spokesperson for agriculture at the time.

When this came to light she was removed from her position. The media seemed happy with that and failed to question her actions or her motives.

I’m not sure how political interference caused cattle to be euthanised because they were too badly injured to be saved, but that was her claim.

She also insisted that the public servant who investigated the case should be dismissed from his job. She tried to destroy their career.

I can understand why anyone would advocate for their family but this was a direct conflict of interest between her Parliamentary position as an MP, and her private family interests.

An inquiry released in December 2022 showed that MPI had handled the case fairly and they had done nothing wrong. They acted within the bounds of the law.

Only Newsroom and the Farmers Weekly reported this review.

Newsroom also did OIA requests into the correspondence. They would not have been able to access that correspondence if it had been done privately, but it had not.

Kuriger should never have blatantly used her political position in an attempt to bully MPI into dropping the charges in a very serious matter.

Kuriger’s actions seem very much like an abuse of power and yet she is the newly selected candidate for Taranaki-King Country. Go figure eh.

Mary-Ann de Kort