Listen Now: 
He made headlines with his first speech as a fresh-faced MP, James Meager, for the safe seat of Rangitata. Now he’s rocketed in to become a Minister, having spent time as Chair of the Justice Select Committee, currently considering the Treaty Principles Bill submissions. According to the National Party website “ … gaining a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Otago, James held a number of roles at Otago University, including as a student coordinator and a strategic projects manager for its Māori health workforce development programme. He went on to work for National MP Chris Bishop, as a press secretary for then-Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett and as an advisor to opposition leaders Bill English and Simon Bridges.”
Meager becomes Minister for the South Island – a new portfolio.
In his maiden speech he said “Perhaps to some I am a walking contradiction—you know, a part-Māori boy, raised in a State house by a single parent on the benefit, now a proud National Party MP in a deeply rural farming electorate in the middle of the South Island—but there is no contradiction there. Members opposite do not own Māori. Members opposite do not own the poor. Members opposite do not own the workers. No party and no ideology has a right to claim ownership over anything or anyone.”
RELATED NEWS
