James Meager

James Rawiri Meager (born ) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party in the electorate of .

Early life and career Born in Timaru in , Meager is of Ngāi Tahu descent. Meager attended Timaru Boys' High School, where he was head boy and dux. He describes himself at university as "loud-mouthed, obnoxious and opinionated". After an incident where he threw a drink over another student, frying his laptop, he ascribed his bad behaviour partly to alcohol use. and ran a consultancy firm. He has also worked as a press secretary to Paula Bennett, as a staffer for Chris Bishop's parliamentary office, and an advisor to Bill English and Simon Bridges.

Political career

Meager was selected as National's candidate for the formerly safe seat of on 18 September 2022. It was a close contest with one other competitor vying for the nomination.

On election night, Meager received 22,792 votes, beating incumbent Labour Party MP Jo Luxton by 10,846 votes. Meager said his first priority as a member of parliament would be to ensure the building of a second bridge for Ashburton happened according to the planned timeframes. The bridge was announced by the Labour government in August 2023, with construction due to start in 2024 and take two years. Meager was concerned that timeframes might change, but promised to begin construction in the first parliamentary term.

In the January 2025 Cabinet reshuffle, Meager was promoted to a Minister outside Cabinet as the Minister for Youth, Minister for Hunting and Fishing, Minister for the South Island and an Associate Minister of Transport. He was the first National MP who was elected in 2023 to be appointed a ministerial portfolio.