MP for Taranaki-King Country Barbara Kuriger has stepped down from her portfolios because of an ongoing family dispute with MPI.
MP for Taranaki-King Country Barbara Kuriger has stepped down from her portfolios of Agriculture, Biosecurity and Food Safety. In a statement released this afternoon, she said she had notified the National party that she was stepping aside last night because of an ongoing family dispute. The dispute relates charges faced by her husband and son and one other of multiple animal cruelty offences. Her son Tony Kuriger pleaded guilty to 11 charges of failing to protect animals, failing to prevent suffering and ill-treatment of animals when he appeared in the Palmerston North District Court in 2018 (Waitomo News, February 27 2018, and August 13, 2020 ). As the MP’s involvement in Oxbow Dairies did not extend past her shareholding she did not face any charges. ‘My family has been in a dispute with the Ministry of Primary Industries over events that occurred in 2017. This has created a blurred line with my portfolio responsibilities and in order to continue to support my family, I am stepping aside.,’ she said. ‘Although the dispute is, for me, a personal matter which I have endeavoured at all times to keep separate from my professional role, I accept there has been a conflict of interest which I should have recognised sooner, and managed. ‘While the dispute is ongoing, I will not be commenting further on this matter.’
