Michelle_Boag

Michelle Boag

Michelle Boag

New Zealand businessman and politician

Michelle Ann Boag (born 10 December 1954)[1] is a New Zealand public relations practitioner and former National Party president.

Quick Facts President of the National Party, Succeeded by ...

Biography

She was educated at Auckland Girls' Grammar School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Victoria University of Wellington in 1977.[1]

Boag was a National Party activist, having joined the Junior National Party in Auckland in the early 1970s. She was in the Prime Minister's press office in 1976, joined the National Party research unit and in 1985 was press officer to the Leader of the Opposition. She spent a short time with the Liberal Party in Australia before moving to public relations work in Auckland and Wellington.[2] While representing Fay Richwhite at the Winebox Inquiry she misled the inquiry and brought in a fake film crew to collect footage of MP Winston Peters.[3][4]

Boag was a National Party Dominion councillor and on the Dominion Publicity Committee. In 2001 she became National Party president. In her time as president she rejuvenated the party, manipulating candidate selections to remove those she saw as "dead wood".[5][6] This enabled Bill English to become leader of the National Party, for the first time. English would then go on to lead the National Party to its worst ever election result at the 2002 election.

In 2006 Boag, then chair of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation, used a rescue helicopter to fetch her passport from Waiheke Island and deliver it to her at Auckland International Airport.[7]

Leaks

Boag became embroiled in the 2012 Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) privacy breach when it was revealed that she had acted as support person for ACC claimant Bronwyn Pullar.[8]

On 7 July 2020, Boag admitted leaking sensitive medical information about COVID-19 patients passed to her in confidence in her role of acting chief executive of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust. She gave the information to National MP Hamish Walker, who then provided it to media outlets. As a result she was forced to resign from the role.[9][10] The following day, Boag resigned from roles she had on National Member of Parliament Nikki Kaye's electorate and campaign team.[11][12] On 9 July she offered to resign from the board of the Simplicity Kiwisaver scheme.[13] On 10 July she resigned her membership of the National Party after it was revealed that she had also passed the leaked information to Health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse.[14]

References

  1. [1]
    Alister Taylor (2001). New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa 2001 Edition. Alister Taylor Publishers. p. 151. ISSN 1172-9813.
  2. [2]
    Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. p. 355. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
  3. [3]
    "Michelle Boag: Yes, that really happened". The New Zealand Herald. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  4. [4]
    Fran O'Sullivan (6 May 2001). "O'Sullivan: Pitfall on Boag's road to the top". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  5. [5]
    Roughan, John (2017). John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister. Penguin Random House New Zealand. ISBN 9780143771180. She made it public when she became National's president that she was on a mission to rejuvenate the party and purge its caucus of 'dead wood'.
  6. [6]
    Salmond, Rob (2003). "Choosing Candidates: Labour and National in 2002". In Jonathan Boston; Stephen Church; Stephen Levine (eds.). New Zealand Votes: The General Election of 2002. wellington: Victoria University Press. pp. 198–199. ISBN 0-86473-468-9.
  7. [7]
    "Busy bigwig uses rescue helicopter to fetch passport". The New Zealand Herald. 25 February 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  8. [8]
    Fisher, David (18 March 2012). "National's Boag was in ACC meeting". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  9. [9]
    Cooke, Henry (7 July 2020). "National MP Hamish Walker admits passing on leaked Covid-19 patient info from former party president Michelle Boag". Stuff. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  10. [10]
    Small, Zane (7 July 2020). "Former National Party president Michelle Boag admits passing COVID-19 patient details to MP Hamish Walker". Newshub. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  11. [11]
    Coughlan, Thomas (8 July 2020). "Michelle Boag resigns from roles with Nikki Kaye, refuses to comment on leak". Stuff. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  12. [12]
    "Covid-19 privacy leak: Michelle Boag stands down from roles with National deputy leader Nikki Kaye". Radio New Zealand. 8 July 2020. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  13. [13]
    Collette Devlin (9 July 2020). "Michelle Boag offers to resign from Simplicity KiwiSaver board". Stuff. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  14. [14]
    Thomas Coughlan (10 July 2020). "Michelle Boag leaves National Party after leaking patient info to Michael Woodhouse". Stuff. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
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