Jamie Arbuckle: The NZ First MP with strong harness roots

One of the highlights from a recent invite to attend a special function hosted at The Beehive in Wellington by The Minister of Racing, the Rt Hon Winston Peters, was a discussion with List MP, Jamie Arbuckle.

Arbuckle is a Marlborough District Councillor with over 13 years’ experience in local government. He has worked across all facets of Council, is an RMA Hearings Commissioner, and Chair of the Economic, Finance & Community Committee.

Arbuckle is well known in the Marlborough district for his time at local markets and for his family’s long involvement in farming and fruit growing in the region.

Probably less well known is the fact that Arbuckle is a die-hard harness racing fan and participant. He formerly spent time working in the harness racing stable of Anne-Marie Best, and retains an interest in the sport as an owner, and through his role on the committee of the Marlborough Racing Club.

Arbuckle kindly took time from his busy schedule to talk to Harnesslink about his ascendance in the political ranks, from a local government level to now finding himself as the NZ First Party Whip. He also discusses his involvement in the sport of harness racing and what it is like to work with a racing minister who shares his passion for the industry.

Jamie it was great to meet you on Wednesday night and thanks for taking the time to have a chat with me. I wanted to start by asking how your career in politics came about?

In 2010 I stood for the local body here at the Marlborough District Council and was elected. I’m now in my fifth term having been re-elected every election since. When I first started in 2010, I was still involved in training horses with Anne Marie Best.

It was an interesting first year getting up early and driving fast work before going on and doing my roles as a member of the City Council,” he laughed.

I had always had an interest in politics ever since I was a young fella by virtue of my parents I guess.  They always actively followed what was happening, especially around election time, discussing who was running and how they worked locally. It was something at home we talked a lot about.

Our family is from a horticultural background. We grew fruit and vegies and still do today. My parents had a 50-acre apple and cherry orchard on Rapaura Road. Finance policy, exporting and all that sort of stuff was always really important to us.

By 2010 my wife and I had a fruit and vegetable business and a hobby orchard and things were tough because it was at the end of the global financial crisis.  The local elections were about to take place and I thought it was a good time and opportunity to get involved.

I was quite well known in the local community having been around the markets selling fruit and produce on a Saturday morning. I put my hand up and was ultimately elected. Looking back on it now the last 14 years have gone really quickly but I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Your visibility in the community can only be a positive and you must be doing something  right given you were the highest-polling candidate in five consecutive elections!

What are some of the things you have been proud of in your time in local politics?

You only get that support if you are doing the work in the background and I take a lot of pride in staying close to the people and listening to what’s happening on the ground. It is really important. You have to be visible and I have always stuck up for the little person and it’s the stuff you get done for people that nobody ever hears about that can often be the most satisfying. Resolving problems big or small, I have always enjoyed that part of the work.

When you become a councillor everyone tells you their business and I find that interesting as well. You learn a lot about the local community and I have always tried to remain very grounded and have continued my time at the local markets selling fruit and produce and I think that is a secret to being in local government.

I have been really lucky from day one in the local council I have specialised in resource consents.  I have sat on a number of hearings and they are not an area where councillors get involved much these days.

It’s a pretty technical area. But I have been involved in a lot of development in the Marlborough Sounds with aquaculture. You get all your different sub-divisions happening around the province and being involved in that decision-making is something you can look back on with its development as being good for the local economy and our constituents.

I guess 14 years working in local government to now finding yourself working out of the Beehive is quite a quantum shift in terms of responsibility in both your work and on your time. What has it been like working so acutely with an iconic New Zealand politician such as Winston Peters?

I have always really admired what Winston Peters has done in his political career. He entered parliament in 1978 and I was born in 1979 so all through my lifetime in following national politics, he has been a mainstay and quite visible in the mainstream media.

As you say he has reinvented himself several times, but for me, it is the party and what it stands for with a premise on common sense and it’s quite middle of the road with getting that balance of policy right. I have always followed him and my parents liked him as a politician also.

When I entered local government, I was asked by local media early on who would you invite for dinner. I said Winston Peters and when it was published in the local newspaper I got a bit of stick about it!

As fate would have it, in 2016 I ended up being his guest at a lunch that was being held here in Blenheim and got to know him on a personal level.

I stood for the party in 2017 and again in 2020 and obviously you do the hard work behind the scenes of a political party and over time I managed to move myself through the ranks a little bit.

I was a part of the board in 2020 and 2023 when the party was outside of parliament and that was a really difficult time for the party but as a result of doing that hard work, I guess you can say it paid off.

I was put 6^th on the list in the last election and the party polled well and I have found myself as an MP in Parliament. It’s like a dream come true and at the moment I find myself sitting behind the Prime Minister and Winston Peters being the NZ First whip, and I sit there with a smile on my face every day thinking this is quite an amazing journey!

JAMIE ARBUCKLE MAIDEN SPEECH

Talk to me a bit about Mr Peter’s finding himself once again as the Minister of Racing and how important it is for an industry like ours to have a Minister who is passionate about the portfolio.

Would it be fair to say at times the portfolio is one that can sort of be a throw-in to the degree that we haven’t always had someone with the knowledge or desire to see it succeed?

He knows the industry and it’s obviously something where like myself, if you enjoy racing, you enjoy the people and the horses and you are passionate about the industry as a whole.

You can tell he has that passion and we all know he turns up to race days and loves that atmosphere and what the industry can do. He also has a lot of history with the Racing industry having been the Minister on a couple of occasions now and has been at the forefront for some of the major changes. You can tell he is very driven to ensure the industry survives and gets stronger and that is the right type of person to be a role model for the industry as well.

You are right and can probably say that for other ministers in the past, it’s just been a throw in type of portfolio. But with Mr Peters, you can tell that he’s got the drive and the passion to actually see the industry prosper and has the knowledge of the industry to achieve that. To me he has a lot of respect with industry leaders as well and that goes a long way.

A lot of New Zealander’s and I think it would be fair to say politicians would be unaware that the Racing Industry is on par with the fishing industry in terms of the GDP it contributes to the local economy. Are we as an industry or code doing a good enough job of telling our story and how can we do it better? 

It’s a story that can be told a lot better, but you need advocates. I don’t think other politicians are aware of the fantastic stories that can be attributed to the racing industry from the involvement of so many people it employs to the social aspect as well.

Then you have the thousands of volunteers responsible for ensuring the delivery of so many core aspects that see the day-to-day delivery of what the fans of the sport and the general public get to enjoy.

I know from my involvement in racing, the discipline thing of getting up early in the morning and working, that is a key aspect of the New Zealand culture in my opinion that has been lost. Particularly in the younger generation.

This industry provides them with a lot of opportunities to enter the workforce, particularly if you have that love for the animal, there are so many different pathways for anyone to get involved and that is something I always encourage with the youth. That often starts when the youth attend a race meeting and get embroiled in the fantastic atmosphere on the track.

I think we all realise the industry over the last decade has been in a bit of a lull but it’s been brilliant to see over the last 12 months some of the growth strategies from the codes and the partnership with industry stakeholders. If we can get in behind as participants and help drive that success, there is no telling where things might end up or the lives that we may change for the better.

I know myself I am extremely passionate about the sport and as soon as I am finished with Parliament on a Friday night I will turn Trackside on to catch the action from Addington or Alexandra Park. I love it and look forward to it a lot and it’s the highlight of my week actually.

Given your passion for the industry, does Mr Peters as Racing Minister ever lean on you for advice or opinions with work being undertaken with the portfolio?

He does, but we have a caucus where there was a lot of competition for the racing portfolio and members of the party who are highly passionate as well.

Casey Costello likes the Thoroughbred side of things and we have a bit of banter about which code is better. Jenny Marcroft and her family have an affiliation with horses as well and there are a number of us in our caucus who have a passion for the equine codes.

There was even a discussion more socially about us having a horse together, so we will see what comes of that over the next couple of years.

We might have to get his trainer Andrew Faulks in touch because there might be a damn good photo opportunity with those two at some stage!

So now to your background in harness racing. Where did the interest and passion come from? Local trainer Tony Thomas gave you some massive wraps with the work you do behind the scenes on the committee with cooking food on race days and even helping him with the track maintenance. It can’t be easy given your work commitments!

My parents always used to take me to Waterlea Racecourse here in Blenheim so as a young’un you didn’t really go for the horses, but the recreational activities and the hotdogs.

We used to have around 10-14 race meetings in the region and as I got older I started to get interested in the horses and started learning their names and have the occasional dabble.

It’s the people at the races ultimately more than the betting. Don’t get me wrong its great having a win but the social aspect and catching up with or meeting new people is what it’s really about.

I never had any presence around horses until I got to know a trainer here in Marlborough called Paul Scott. I met him through buying asparagus and vegetables from him and he had a horse called Steal The Moon (Wilcos Kosby) who was a grey pacer and every time I used to go and buy the produce, Steal the Moon would be out in the paddock.

He was always telling me it had ability and he won a lot of the local trials and every time he raced I would follow him. He wasn’t particularly fast in the end but he did win a race at Kaikoura. When he finished his career I casually joked that I wouldn’t mind having him, and sure enough, he wound up giving him to me.

So all of a sudden I had Steal The Moon and I put him out in my apple orchard, but that became problematic when he started eating all my trees!

So I ended up with this horse and not a lot of knowledge about them. Funnily enough, I had also gotten to know Jeremy and Anne Marie Best as they would come and buy fruit and veggies from me and she could see that I was interested and said that I should come down and learn how to train a horse.

Obviously early on I was just brushing them and gearing up, but the next thing I knew I was in the cart going around the track. She let me bring Steal the Moon down to be worked, and before I knew it I was down there every day. It got to the stage where I was going to the workouts and trials regularly and we actually got him to the races once for me over in Nelson under Anne Marie’s name and even though he didn’t do any good, that was a real highlight.

When he retired my involvement continued with taking a few small shares in horses and I was part of The Met syndicate who raced Roydon Flash (S J’s Photo) who won 12 or 13 races and went to Australia and did a good job. He won on Cup Day when he flew down the outside to win by a nose on the winning post and I remember whoever the commentator was at the time really making it exciting.

I have a few shares in horses now with a few people and it’s just a good little interest. Obviously now sitting in local government and being an MP I don’t get to be involved directly with working the horses anymore, but I still get to help out at the Marlborough Trotting Club with my work as a committee member at meetings and on race day.

One of my biggest thrills recently was meeting Matt Cross in January and told him how I mentioned him by name in my maiden speech in parliament and how I love his calls and the industry. He invited me up to the commentary box and the race that I wound up visiting for was when Tony Thomas’ horse won and unfortunately fell soon after the winning post.

The horse and driver were unscathed but it was quite an ironic thing to happen. Matt turned to me and told me that next time I’m at Addington to pay him another visit, so hopefully that opportunity come sooner rather than later.

And what about now, do you still have any ownership interests to keep you engaged from that aspect?

I have a few shares with Off And Racing, we have a work in progress with a two-year-old trotter called Golden Solitaire (En Solitaire – One Over Kenny) who is out in a paddock spelling at the moment.

Another one I have who is Captain Publisher (Captain Crunch – Neverland Franco) hopefully going to win the New Zealand Cup for me in a couple of years. He is only a two-year-old but has been busy earlier in the year at the trials and workouts and that came about with Les Whiteside who runs the community newspaper and is active in the industry.

I think he felt a bit sorry for me with some of the hard luck I have had as an owner but it’s all good fun and as I say, helps to keep me engaged now that I can’t get out and be as hands on as I would like.

Some other interesting tidbits about Arbuckle…

He won six gold medals at the 2023 South Island’s Masters Game’s on the Sunday morning after having been elected to Parliament!

“I had the masters booked in about four or five months in advance. It was terrible timing, at 10am I was running the 3000m.

“I like doing my athletics. I’m not particularly good at it,” he laughed.

Not only did he win that race, he also landed on top of the podium five more times that day, in the 800m, 1500m, high jump, long jump and discuss.

The following day he was on the plane to Wellington and straight into an induction, where he toured the NZ First offices and the wider Beehive. By Tuesday morning, he was Zooming into a council Economic, Finance and Community committee meeting from Wellington.

In his maiden parliamentary speech, Arbuckle described his late mother as the “greatest politician you would ever meet” and said he had a family tree that was difficult to explain.

He then went on: “I don’t know exactly who my biological dad is, but I have two that say they are.

“One of those, who has now passed, would be super proud of this moment; the other is a local legend in his own right,” he said. “The traits they both share is working the land and being practical, hard-working people.”

He later explained that both men had helped to raise him at different times – and helpfully, both were called Arbuckle. His mother had died 20 years ago but she had not told him which was his father.

Arbuckle said he was considering taking a paternity test at the request of the one who was alive and who had been at his maiden speech.

Arbuckle completed his Business and Management Diploma at NMIT and is married to his wife Sally, who is also a Marlborough District Councillor serving the Wairau-Awatere ward. They have four children aged 15-23.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink