A study by Wellington public relations company Blackland PR found 11 of Parliament’s 121 MPs have experience working in the agricultural sector, nine of them from National, one from Labour and one from New Zealand First.
No Green Party MPs have worked in the rural sector.
The company’s director Mark Blackham said 23% of MPs had worked in business or commerce and 19% in central government.
A quarter of Labour MPs and 20% of those from National worked in the public service or in Parliament before being elected.
A third of all MPs had no definable career but an increasing number were heavily involved in activism or worked for non-government organisations, especially among the Green Party ranks, before entering Parliament.
Agriculture is the one career that differentiates party roots.
“Agriculture is the only major economic sector where experience differs between political parties,” he said.
For the last four administrations the company has assessed the background of elected representatives.
A link to farming is considered to be someone who has owned or worked in an agribusiness.
That includes Wellington list MP Nicola Willis who spent six years in senior management at Fonterra and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor who has a farming background but latterly has been involved in tourism.
Blackham has looked at the percentage of farmer-MPs since the 1950s and 1960s and said as a percentage the number has not varied much.
What has changed has been their influence at the Cabinet table with fewer now in positions of influence.
A more significant trend is the increasing number of MPs entering Parliament at a young age having worked there.
“These are people starting out in politics and staying in politics and jobs they have had as volunteers or worked in their party politics.”
Career politicians and the political establishment have been blamed for voters switching off politics overseas, especially in the United States, because they are considered less representative and less connected to voters.
Blackham said the value of MPs with an agricultural background is they tend to stay grounded and work for the sector.
The Blackland study also looked at the attitude towards agriculture of the 2017 intake of new MPs.
“Among the 24 new MPs to Parliament, 40% of them said positive things about the existing agricultural sector. All of those were the National MPs.”
The new Labour and Green MPs did not make positive comments about the rural sector while centre-left MPs all expressed grave concern about the quality of NZ’s water – from fresh water to drinking water.
“Most of them sheeted home blame to agriculture.
“For example, Willie Jackson (Labour, South Auckland) says it is farmers who pollute the waterways so it is they who must pay.”
