Owen Jennings

Owen Robert Jennings (born ) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1996 to 2002, representing the ACT New Zealand party.

Biography Early life and career Jennings was born in . Before entering politics, he was a farmer, purchasing a family farm in Karamea in 1964. In 1967, Jennings married Doreen Amelia Dron at Hope Gospel Hall. In 1979, he was part of the Kellog farm leadership programme at Lincoln College.

Jennings was active in New Zealand Federated Farmers, becoming its national president in 1990. He served three years. Prior to this he was chairman of the national dairy section of Federated Farmers. 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.

Political career

Jennings's political career began in local government. He stood in the 1989 Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council election in the Tasman constituency for a seat on the Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council, but was unsuccessful. In 1991, he was elected to the Tasman District Council and was chairperson of the council's environmental and planning committee.

Jennings was a candidate to become the second Leader of ACT after Roger Douglas stepped down, but he lost the race to Douglas' preferred successor, Richard Prebble at the party's 1996 annual general meeting.

Jennings was first elected to Parliament in the 1996 election, becoming a list MP, having stood in the electorate. After entering parliament he was ACT spokesperson for agriculture, local government, transport, business development and rural affairs. During his first term as an MP, he stood in the Taranaki-King Country by-election where he finished a close second to National Party candidate Shane Ardern by 984 votes.

Jennings was re-elected on the ACT Party list in 1999; however, he was ranked at 12th on the party list in 2002 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.