Owen Jennings is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1996 to 2002, representing the

ACT New Zealand ACT New Zealand, known simply as ACT (), is a right-wing, classical-liberal political party in New Zealand. According to former party leader Rodney Hide, ACT's values are "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natur ...

party.

Early years

Before entering politics, Jennings was a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

. Jennings was active in New Zealand

Federated Farmers Federated Farmers of New Zealand is a lobby and advocacy group for all farmers: arable including fruit and vegetables, dairy and meat and their often remote communities. It has a network of 24 regional organisations and six industry groups. F ...

, becoming its National President in 1990. He served three years. Prior to this he was National Dairy Section Chairman. He was a director of the Karamea Dairy Company, Atas Marketing Meat Ltd and Combined Rural Traders Ltd. He also helped start the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust and was a director for nine years. Jennings was active in the Pacific Basin Economic Council and attended a number of trade talks on behalf of farmers.

Member of Parliament

Jennings was a candidate to become the second Leader of ACT after

Roger Douglas Sir Roger Owen Douglas (born 5 December 1937) is a retired New Zealand politician who served as a minister in two Labour governments. He became arguably best known for his prominent role in New Zealand's radical economic restructuring in the 19 ...

stepped down, but he lost the race to Douglas' preferred successor,

Richard Prebble Richard William Prebble (born 7 February 1948) is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 19 ...

. Jennings was first elected to Parliament in the 1996 election, becoming a

list MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs ...

. During his first term as an MP, he stood in the Taranaki-King Country by-election where he finished second to National Party candidate

Shane Ardern Philip Shane Ardern (born 26 January 1960) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the National Party and represented the electorate of Taranaki-King Country from 1998 to 2014. Early years Ardern is the son of Noel and Olive Ardern. H ...

. Jennings was re-elected on the ACT Party list in 1999; however, he was ranked at 12th on the party list in 2002 and was not returned to parliament. During his time as a parliamentarian, Jennings was widely regarded as being on the rural-centric right wing of ACT.

References

ACT New Zealand MPs Living people New Zealand farmers New Zealand list MPs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 2002 New Zealand general election Year of birth missing (living people) {{NewZealand-politician-stub

Early years

Member of Parliament

Further reading

References