Katherine O'Regan

Electorate abolished

Katherine Victoria Newton

(1946-05-24)24 May 1946
Te Mata, New Zealand

2 May 2018(2018-05-02) (aged 71)

Neil O'Regan
(m. 1968, divorced)
(m. 1992)

Susan O'Regan (daughter)

Early life[edit]

Katherine Victoria Newton was born to farming parents at Te Mata, on the West Coast of the North Island and attended Hamilton Girls' High School. She chose a nursing career but left after two years due to suffering from back problems.[1] After leaving nursing, O'Regan was involved in community organisations like the Plunket Society, SPELD (a non-profit organisation that supports people with dyslexia) and the Hamilton Speech Therapy Association.

Later career[edit]

In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, O'Regan was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services.[11]


She was the chair of the Te Awamutu Community Public Relations Organisation.[12] She was Chair of the Human Ethics in Research Committee for eight years at Waikato Institute of Technology and served on the New Zealand Law Society Waikato/Bay of Plenty Complaints Committee.

Political views[edit]

O'Regan was a council member of Family Planning New Zealand. She favoured compulsory sex education from age ten and condom vending machines in all secondary schools and public toilets.[13] In an obituary, her daughter Susan O'Regan described her mother as a Royalist, feminist, and strong believer in equal rights.[1]

Personal life[edit]

O'Regan has two children to her first husband Neil O'Regan, whom she married in 1968.[14] The couple divorced; O'Regan married former National MP Michael Cox in 1992.


O'Regan was diagnosed, through the free screening programme she had established as Associate Minister of Health, with breast cancer in 2008.[5] She died of her illness on 2 May 2018.[15]

O'Regan, Katherine. The Thread is Politics. In Clark, Margaret (ed). (1986) Beyond Expectations: fourteen New Zealand women write about their lives. Allen & Unwin. p. 143–154.