Former MP Katherine O’Regan dies
Former New Zealand politician, Katherine O’Regan has died. She was 71.
O’Regan was a National MP from 1984 to 1999 and served as a minister for the National Government for six of those years.
In 2002, she was appointed a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for public services. She died on May 2, 2018.
O’Regan was born to farming parents at Te Mata, near Raglan, on the West Coast. She attended Hamilton Girls’ High School.
Before her time in Parliament, she was the first woman to be elected in 1977 to the Waipa County Council. She served as a councillor for eight years.
She entered Parliament in 1984 as MP for Waipa. She held the electorate for 12 years until it was abolished in 1996.
In the 1990 election, Prime Minister Jim Bolger appointed her Minister of Consumer Affairs, Associate Minister of Health, Associate Minister of Social Welfare and Associate Minister of Women’s Affairs.
These remained her portfolios until the 1996 election, with Minister of Youth Affairs added briefly at the end of 1996.
Under Jenny Shipley, she became Associate Minister of Women’s Affairs.
The associate position was newly created and first held by O’Regan. She held this role until December 1996.
In the 1996 election, she unsuccessfully contested the electorate of Tauranga against Winston Peters, but remained in Parliament as a list MP. She was the chairwoman of the Internal Affairs Select Committee from 1996 to 1999.
In the 1999 election, she again challenged Peters and came within 62 votes of defeating him.
She was not high enough on National’s party list to remain in Parliament without winning an electorate, however.
O’Regan was involved in multiple community organisations, such as NZ Plunket Society, Speld (helping children who have learning disabilities to reach their full potential), and Hamilton Speech Therapy Association.
In 1994, she led the New Zealand delegation to the UN Population and Development Conference in Cairo and as Associate Minister of Health, she amended the Human Rights Act to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and having organisms in the body which might cause disease.
She was a council member of Family Planning New Zealand and supported sex education from age 10. She also backed condom vending machines in all secondary schools and public toilets.
She was chair of the Te Awamutu Community Public Relations Organisation and chair of the Human Ethics in Research committee for eight years at Wintec.
Her funeral will be held at St John’s Anglican Church, Te Awamutu, on Tuesday, May 8, at 1pm.