Cathy Odgers is a New Zealand-born,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

-based former blogger and lawyer who is best known for running a smear campaign against the head of the New Zealand Serious Fraud Office. She published the ''Cactus Kate''

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

, and wrote the fortnightly Cactus Kate column in The Dominion Post from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, Odgers was declared one of New Zealand's "hottest singles" by

The Sunday Star-Times The ''Sunday Star-Times'' is a New Zealand newspaper published each weekend in Auckland. It covers both national and international news, and is a member of the New Zealand Press Association and Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand. ...

. In 2011, it was reported in that Odgers was expected to be approved as a list candidate for the

ACT party ACT New Zealand, known simply as ACT (), is a right-wing, classical-liberal political party in New Zealand. According to former party leader Rodney Hide, ACT's values are "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natu ...

, however she was not included on ACT's eventual party list for the 2011 general election. In 2013, Odgers was part of a group of three pranksters who taped New Zealand flags on the house of

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one ...

defender

Oracle Team USA Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Clu ...

principal

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...

in San Francisco, as an act of support for

Emirates Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cu ...

''Dirty Politics'' controversy

In 2014, private conversations between Odgers, political commentator Matthew Hooton, and blogger

Cameron Slater Cameron Slater is a right-wing New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in '' Dirty Politics'' and publishing the ''Whale Oil Beef Hooked'' blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. He edited the tabloid newspaper ''New Z ...

were published in the book ''

Dirty Politics ''Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment'' is a book by Nicky Hager published in August 2014. The book is based on emails hacked from Cameron Slater's Gmail account and on Facebook chats. These co ...

'' by investigative journalist

Nicky Hager Nicky Hager (born 1958) is a New Zealand investigative journalist. He has produced seven books since 1996, covering topics such as intelligence networks, environmental issues and politics. He is one of two New Zealand members of the Internationa ...

. The conversations include an exchange in which Odgers suggests that if the address for Hager is published he may come to physical harm. Odgers subsequently wrote a blog post that included Hager's address that was then published on Slater's blog. Odgers also helped plan a campaign against members of the Maritime Union of New Zealand during the 2011 Ports of Auckland industrial dispute in which port management leaked a union member's personnel file.

Serious Fraud Office controversy

Soon after the release of ''Dirty Politics'', Odgers' employer confirmed she was no longer working for them "by mutual consent".

Mark Hotchin Mark Stephen Hotchin (born 25 December 1958) is a New Zealand former property developer and financier. He was a director of the failed Hanover Group which owned a number of finance companies including Hanover Finance, United Finance, Nationwid ...

allegedly paid Odgers to run a smear campaign against the head of the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Markets Authority, while Hotchin was being investigated by said authorities. This led to the

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a Ministry (government department), ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of ju ...

Judith Collins Judith Anne Collins (born 24 February 1959) is a New Zealand politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 14 July 2020 to 25 November 2021. She was the second female Leader of the Nati ...

losing her job.

References

External links

Cactus Kate blog (now defunct)

Harvested copies of Cactus Kate
from the National Library of New Zealand {{DEFAULTSORT:Odgers, Cathy Living people New Zealand bloggers New Zealand women bloggers New Zealand women lawyers University of Auckland alumni 21st-century New Zealand lawyers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century New Zealand women lawyers