O’Regan was a strong believer in equal rights
When told last year that the Waipa District Council was to induct her into Te Awamutu’s Walk of Fame, Katherine O’Regan was amazed.
It was true that since her retirement the former Waipa and list MP had been busy in her community. There was her role as chair of the Te Awamutu public relations association, her membership of the Waikato Bay of Plenty District Law Society standards committee, and her election to the Waikato diocese synod, all of which spoke to her involvement.
These aside, her most recent notable achievement perhaps was her instrumental role in the establishment of the Te Awamutu Community Health Transport Trust and its shuttle services.
Nevertheless, there were, to her mind, others in the community more deserving of the honour.
The council went ahead anyway, and there is a stainless steel pou dedicated to the farmgirl from Te Mata on the walk, across the road from St John’s Anglican church where, according to husband Michael Cox, she had enjoyed playing the organ ‘‘with a slight bit of swing’’.
The pou is but one of the accolades afforded the Hamilton Girls’ High and Sonning Hostel pupil who, as a selfconfessed average student once strapped for talking too much, left school with modest hopes of a nursing career. She lasted two years before her back gave out, but made friendships so strong three colleagues returned to her bedside to nurse her through her final days earlier this month.
Forced from her nursing career prematurely, Katherine threw her energies into marriage, farming and parenthood. She redirected her innate traits of empathy and communitymindedness into Plunket, Speld New Zealand, and the Hamilton Speech Therapy Association.
A firm believer in self-responsibility and freedom of choice, she was an active member of the NZ National Party and in her late 20s began another lifelong friendship, this time with Raglan MP Marilyn Waring. Katherine was her electorate agent for eight years, only leaving when, not content with raising a family, helping on the farm, and doing accounts for the family sawmill, she thought she would stand for the Waipa County Council.
She was elected Waipa’s first female councillor, a position she held for eight years. The roles proved to be a helpful apprenticeship for what followed in the next 15 years, from 1984.
Elected to Parliament as MP for Waipa, Katherine spent the first six years in opposition before completing nine years in government.
During this latter period, she served as Minister of Consumer Affairs and, at various times, Associate Minister of Health, Social Welfare, Women’s Affairs and Youth Affairs. She represented New Zealand at the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 and again the following year in New York to present New Zealand’s Country Report to the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
Daughter and Waipa District Councillor Susan O’Regan says her mother was a liberal traditionalist.
‘‘She was a Royalist and a strong believer in equal rights, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, or ability. She always cheered for the underdog and could see the many sides of arguments.
‘‘She was an unashamed feminist and advocate for equality for all. She was vocal in her support of improvements to the law throughout the ’80s and ’90s in the areas of learning difficulties, homosexual law reform, cervical screening, in vitro fertilisation, parental leave, pornography and violence against women, midwifery, consumer rights, mental health treatment and cultural difference, prostitution law reform and breast cancer screening programmes.
‘‘But perhaps Mum’s most notable achievement in her political career was her contribution to the amendment to the Human Rights Act. This amendment outlawed discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and having organisms in the body which may cause disease. She was a trailblazer in this area.’’
Former Hamilton mayor Margaret Evans was a Plunket mum with Katherine in the 1970s and recalls that they, with other young mothers, were part of the ‘‘second wave’’ of feminism.
‘‘Katherine was a contemporary version of that other Waikato pioneering political activist Dame Hilda Ross. Katherine was always looking out for the vulnerable caught out by society’s storms, with great affection and good humour, and a glimpse of steel.
‘‘Kathy’s commitment to human rights had flair and loads of goodwill. Like Hilda, she represented New Zealand in global forums. And she was often way ahead of her colleagues in her thinking on population and development issues, family planning, consumer rights and learning disabilities. She opened the door on sexual orientation and Aids policies.’’
Katherine held the Waipa electorate
Daughter Susan O’Regan
for 12 years until it was abolished in 1996 to make way for MMP.
In the 1996 and 1999 elections, she unsuccessfully contested Tauranga against Winston Peters. In 1996, she returned to Parliament as a list MP but retired from politics in 1999 after narrowly failing, by 63 votes, to win Tauranga.
The Dominion newspaper reported she was happy away from Parliament and had decided she would not return.
‘‘Life after politics,’’ she told the paper, ‘‘is good and the garden is looking a little more loved.’’
In 2002, she was appointed a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for public services by Governor-General Dame Sylvia Cartwright. More locally, she was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship from Te Awamutu Rotary.
Katherine’s passion for genealogy saw her write and research books connected to Newtons, Amesses, Wyes, Lethams, Porters and Curtises – all branches of her family. Such was her interest in family histories, she also researched and wrote several for other people.
Ten years ago, Katherine was diagnosed with breast cancer – ironically in the free screening programme piloted in the 1990s when she was Associate Minister of Health. She went public to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Katherine dealt with her increasing limitations with grace, dignity and positivity. She travelled Australia in a wheelchair with Michael, meeting members from various branches of the fast-growing family tree. She was determined to defy the prognosis, and, for a long time, she did.
Susan told those at her mother’s farewell that Katherine had regularly reported to her about appointments with her oncologist, saying he seemed genuinely bamboozled as to her healthy presentation, despite her tests and scans suggesting otherwise.
‘‘On one occasion, he was stunned when she presented him with a jar of some quince jelly which she had finished making the day before – apologising that it hadn’t quite set yet!’’
Katherine was the loved wife of Michael Cox and the late Neil O’Regan, and daughter of the late Nettie and Jack Newton of Te Mata. She was the treasured mother and mother-in-law to Andrew and Michelle, and Susan and John; and the much-loved grandmother to Charlotte and Abby, and Emily, George, Ben, Lily and Jack.
A Life Story tells of a New Zealander who helped to shape the Waikato community. If you know of someone whose life story should be told, please email Charles.riddle@wintec.ac.nz.