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

Biography

She was educated at

Auckland Girls' Grammar School "Through trials to triumph" , colours = gold, navy blue , type = State single-sex girls' secondary school (Years 9–13) , established = 1878 , address = Howe Street, Newton, Auckland , coordinates = , principal = Ngaire Ashmore ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science from

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

in 1977. 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 The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

in Australia before moving to public relations work in Auckland and Wellington. While representing Fay Richwhite at the

Winebox Inquiry The Winebox Inquiry was an inquiry undertaken in New Zealand to investigate claims of corruption and incompetence in the Serious Fraud Office (New Zealand), Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Inland Revenue Department (New Zealand), Inland Revenue Dep ...

she misled the inquiry and brought in a fake film crew to collect footage of MP

Winston Peters Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician serving as the leader of New Zealand First since its foundation in 1993. Peters served as the 13th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1996 to 1998 and 2017 to 2020, ...

. 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". This enabled

Bill English Sir Simon William English (born 30 December 1961) is a New Zealand former National Party politician who served as the 39th prime minister of New Zealand from 2016 to 2017 and as the 17th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and minister of f ...

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.

Leaks

Boag became embroiled in the 2012

Accident Compensation Corporation The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) ( mi, Te Kaporeihana Āwhina Hunga Whara) is the New Zealand Crown entity responsible for administering the country's no-fault accidental injury compensation scheme, commonly referred to as the ACC sch ...

(ACC) privacy breach when it was revealed that she had acted as support person for ACC claimant Bronwyn Pullar. On 7 July 2020, Boag admitted leaking sensitive medical information about

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

patients passed to her in confidence in her role of acting chief executive of the

Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter is a New Zealand accident and emergency rescue and transport service operated by the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust (ARHT). The trust operates two AW169 and one BK117 helicopters on behalf of the helicop ...

. She gave the information to National MP

Hamish Walker Hamish Richard Walker (born 1985) is a New Zealand former politician and former Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party. Political career At the 2014 general election, Walker stood in , placing second in th ...

, who then provided it to media outlets. As a result she was forced to resign from the role. The following day, Boag resigned from roles she had on National Member of Parliament

Nikki Kaye Nicola Laura Kaye (born 11 February 1980) is a New Zealand politician who served as Deputy Leader of the New Zealand National Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 22 May 2020 to 14 July 2020. Kaye served as the member of the New Ze ...

's electorate and campaign team. On 9 July she offered to resign from the board of the Simplicity Kiwisaver scheme. 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 Michael Allan Woodhouse (born 1965) is a National member of the New Zealand Parliament. Early years Woodhouse was born and raised in South Dunedin, the fifth of nine children. He attended St Patrick's, St Edmund's and St Pauls High School, no ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boag, Michelle Living people New Zealand National Party politicians 1954 births Victoria University of Wellington alumni People educated at Auckland Girls' Grammar School People from Auckland