Andrew Hoggard

Andrew John Hoggard (born 1975 (age 28)) is a New Zealand dairy farmer and farming leader, and served as president of Federated Farmers between 2020 and 2023. He was elected as a list MP for ACT New Zealand at the 2023 general election.

Early life
Hoggard was born in 1974 or 1975, the eldest son of Mike and Lynette Hoggard. He was educated at Heretaunga College in Upper Hutt, and went on to study at Massey University, graduating with a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics degree in 1996.

Farming career
The Hoggards moved from Upper Hutt to a 186 ha farm at Kiwitea in Manawatū in 1998, with Andrew 50% sharemilking 440 Holstein Friesian cows on the farm owned by his parents.

In 2001, Hoggard competed in the Taranaki–Manawatū regional final of the Young Farmer of the Year contest. The following year, he was again a regional finalist in the event, placing third, and in 2003 he won the Taranaki–Manawatū Young Farmer of the Year title. He went on to compete in the 2003 national final, but finished outside the top four. In 2004, Hoggard finished third in the Taranaki–Manawatū regional final.

Hoggard served as chair of the Federated Farmers Dairy Industry Group from 2014 to 2017, and was Federated Farmers vice-president from 2017 to 2020. On 26 June 2020, he succeeded Katie Milne as president of the organisation. He was elected to the board of the International Dairy Federation in November 2020. Hoggard resigned as Federated Farmers president on 8 May 2023, two months before his term of office was due to end.

In October 2022 Hoggard, as Federated Farmers national president, criticised the Labour Government's plans to tax the emissions produced by farm animals by 2025. Agricultural emissions by farm animals including burping and urination account for about half of New Zealand's emissions. Hoggard claimed that the tax would hurt the farming sector by discouraging farmers from making a living.

Political career
Hoggard became a member of ACT New Zealand in 2019. On 9 May 2023, one day after stepping down as president of Federated Farmers, he was named as the ACT candidate in the Rangitīkei electorate for the 2023 New Zealand general election. Hoggard was subsequently ranked fifth on ACT's party list for the election.

During the 2023 election, Hoggard came third place in the Rangitīkei electorate, which was won by National Party candidate Suze Redmayne. He was however elected to Parliament on the ACT party list.

Following the formation of the National-led coalition government, Hoggard became Minister for Biosecurity, Minister for Food Safety, and Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal welfare, skills), and Associate Minister of the Environment in late November 2023.

On 14 March 2024 Hoggard, as Associate Environment Minister, announced that the Government would suspend the obligation for councils to impose Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) under the previous Sixth Labour Government's National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while the Resource Management Act 1991 is being replaced. Significant Natural Areas are places in New Zealand where rare or threatened plants or animals are found. Their protection was previously required under the Resource Management Act. On 15 March he released a statement saying his 14 March comment had been misunderstood: "To be clear, there has been no change to statutory and regulatory obligations on councils at this point. If my statement has been read in a way that suggested that the change had already come into effect, this was not the intention". University of Otago law Professor Andrew Geddis said the statement was "misleading at best, and borderline unlawful at worst. No minister can by mere announcement remove an existing legal obligation imposed by a parliamentary enactment," he said.