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OCTOBER 26, 2023
MPs names missing By Mary Anne Gill
Three elected Waipā district members of Parliament have been left off a story board in Garden Place, Hamilton which honours Waikato’s female MPs. The omission of Katherine O‘Regan, Louise Upston and Barbara Kuriger is even more bewildering because featured on the board is New Zealand First’s Barbara Stewart, who lived in Cambridge during her 12 years as a List MP. Now the organiser of the board, former Hamilton mayor Margaret Evans, is scrambling for explanations
on how the 'mystery' oversight of O’Regan occurred – she was on the final list - and is vowing to put it right. The statue of the legendary Dame Hilda Ross was unveiled in October 2020 with the story board erected alongside it several months later. On the board’s list of Waikato MPs is Dame Hilda, Iriaka Ratana, Dorothy Jelicich, Marilyn Waring, Dianne Yates, Nanaia Mahuta, Margaret Wilson, Barbara Stewart and Sue Moroney. Of the three Waipā names missing, O’Regan’s is the most glaring as aside from
being an MP from 1984-1999, she was also in 1977 the first woman elected to the Waipā County Council and a member of the Te Awamutu Walk of Fame. “You have uncovered a mystery,” Evans told The News in reference to O’Regan’s omission. She supplied information sent to the Hamilton City Council when the copy for the story board was approved. O’Regan was on that list but missed off the final copy. “You will see that we had 10 women MPs in the final list. “My recall is that we retained Margaret Wilson
Katherine O’Regan because of her 'history making' as the first woman speaker and closely involved with Hamilton over many years, and therefore we had
to add in the other list MP Barbara Stewart (which also gave a cross-party theme).” Stewart was by then out of Parliament – she did two stints as a List MP – from 2002-2008 and 2011-2017. But Upston had been Taupō MP for 13 years – she entered Parliament in 2008 - and Kuriger seven as Taranaki-King Country‘s elected representative. The Taupō electorate, despite its name, includes the Waikato towns of Cambridge, Tokoroa and Putāruru. Taupō town is itself part of the Waikato Regional Council territorial authority – established in 1989 - but for sporting purposes, particularly rugby, is in King Country and for other sports, Bay of Plenty. The Taranaki-King Country electorate, again despite its name, includes Photo: Mary Anne Gill Te Awamutu which is as
The story board alongside the statue of Dame Hilda Ross.
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Barbara Kuriger Waikato as mooloo bells and red, yellow and black hooped rugby jerseys. Other towns like Te Kuiti, Ōtorohanga and Inglewood are aligned in rugby parlance with King Country and Taranaki. Katherine O’Regan died in 2018 and her daughter Susan, now Waipā’s first female mayor, said she was unaware her mother had been left off the board and was surprised at the omission. Kuriger said it looked like an oversight to her that the Taranaki-King Country MP would not be included on the board. “Perhaps those who make the decisions about who is included could consider the geographics of the electorates and not just be guided by the names of them.”
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