John Luxton

Murray John Finlay Luxton, known as John Luxton, QSO (born 14 September 1946)^[1] is a former New Zealand National Party politician, and a son of Jack Luxton who had previously represented the same Matamata electorate. He was a National Party MP from 1987 to 2002. He is the Chairman of DairyNZ, the organisation that represents all New Zealand dairy farmers. He is also co-chair of the Waikato River Authority, a Crown/iwi co-governance organisation established through Treaty of Waitangi settlement legislation to clean up the Waikato River.

Early life

He was born in Morrinsville and educated at Hamilton Boys' High School and Massey University (BAgSc, DipAgSc, DipBusSc, MMgt). After an initial role as a Ministry of Agriculture dairy specialist, he and his late wife Merryl went dairy farming. Periods of project consulting in Africa, Asia and the Pacific were interspersed with dairy farming in New Zealand over the following decade.

Member of Parliament

Parliament of New Zealand
Years	Term	Electorate	List	Party
1987–1990	42nd	Matamata		National
1990–1993	43rd	Matamata		National
1993–1996	44th	Matamata		National
1996–1999	45th	Karapiro	33	National
1999–2002	46th	List	14	National

Luxton was first elected to Parliament in the 1987 elections as the MP for Matamata. He replaced his father Jack Luxton, who held the Piako electorate then Matamata for 21 years from 1966, and had been Chairman of Committees in Parliament.

Luxton held Matamata until the 1996 elections, when a boundary change caused him to stand in the seat of Karapiro. In the 1999 elections, he opted to become a list MP, leaving the Karapiro seat to newcomer Lindsay Tisch.

Minister

The National Party won the 1990 elections, and Jim Bolger became Prime Minister, Luxton was appointed to Cabinet. His ministerial roles have included Minister of Energy, Minister of Housing, Minister of Maori Affairs, Minister of Police, Minister of Commerce, Minister of Industry, Minister of Fisheries, Minister of Lands, Minister of Customs and Minister of Agriculture. He was also an Associate Minister of Education and of Overseas Trade. Luxton was regarded by many as one of the more economically liberal members of the National Party.

After politics

Luxton did not seek re-election in the 2002 elections. More recently he was one of the founders of the Open Country Cheese Company and the Kaimai Cheese Company, located near Matamata, in the Waikato, along with former colleague Rt Hon Wyatt Creech.

He holds a number of directorships in the agribusiness sector including the Tatua Coop Dairy Company, having been a previous Chairman, and Wallace Corporation, and has farming interests and is currently chair of DairyNZ, the New Zealand Dairy Industry Good organisation which represents all New Zealand dairy farmers. He is married to Mary Scholtens, QC.

He was for a short period (2005-6) a director of listed investment and property company Blue Chip, Luxton resigned from that Board. Luxton has been appointed as a Co-Chair the Waikato River Authority and is a member of the New Zealand Constitutional Advisory Panel. He also sits on the board of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company and Landcare Research, one of the Crown Research Institutes.

See also

• Fourth National Government of New Zealand

References

1. Temple, Philip (1994). Temple’s Guide to the 44th New Zealand Parliament. Dunedin: McIndoe Publishers. p. 71. ISBN 0 86868 159 8.

• 1990 Parliamentary Candidates for the New Zealand National Party by John Stringer p. 42 (New Zealand National Party, 1990)
• Hon John Luxton at executive.govt.nz