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Owen Jennings (born 1945/6) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament from1996 to2002, representing theACT New Zealand party.
Before entering politics, Jennings was afarmer, purchasing a family farm inKaramea in 1964. Jennings was active in New ZealandFederated Farmers, 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.[1]
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996–1999 | 45th | List | 6 | ACT | |
| 1999–2002 | 46th | List | 6 | ACT | |
Jennings's political career began in local government. In 1991 he was elected to theTasman District Council and was chairperson of the council's environmental and planning committee.[1]
Jennings was a candidate to become the second Leader of ACT afterRoger Douglas stepped down, but he lost the race to Douglas' preferred successor,Richard Prebble at the party's 1996 annual general meeting.[2]
Jennings was first elected to Parliament in the1996 election, becoming alist MP, having stood in theWest Coast-Tasman electorate.[1] After entering parliament he was ACT spokesperson for agriculture, local government, transport, business development and rural affairs.[3] During his first term as an MP, he stood in theTaranaki-King Country by-election where he finished a close second toNational Party candidateShane Ardern by 984 votes.[4]
Jennings was re-elected on the ACT Party list in 1999; however, he was ranked at 12th on the party list in2002 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.[5]
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Brian D. Chamberlin | President of Federated Farmers 1990–1993 | Succeeded by Graham Robertson |
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