Pamela Corkery (born 1956) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

journalist, broadcaster, and former politician who served one term (1996–1999) as a member of Parliament for the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

party.

Private life

Corkery (née Mc Nutt) was born in the South Island, and grew up in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. She has been married three times, and has two children.

Member of Parliament

A well-known journalist and

talk-back Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

host in New Zealand, she first entered politics standing as an independent candidate for the Auckland mayoralty in 1995. She then became a high-profile parliamentary candidate for the

party, and was elected to Parliament as a

list MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs ...

in the 1996 election. She left Parliament in 1999 after one term. In her 1999 book ''Pam's Political Confessions'', she wrote, "Politicians are, by and large, far more self-deluding, devious, bloated, insecure, egocentric wankers than I had feared." (p. 9).

Professional career

After leaving Parliament, she returned to her work as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, and talk-back host at

Radio Pacific TAB Trackside is a New Zealand horse racing and sports broadcast network, incorporating two pay TV channels. The TV channels are available on Sky channels and the Spark Sport streaming service. The radio station broadcasts on 14 AM radio and 16 ...

. Corkery presented the live interview show ''The Last Word'' on TV One from March 2003 until the show was cancelled in September 2003. She appeared in a 2008 episode of the TV

travelogue Travelogue may refer to: Genres * Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling * Travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or ...

Intrepid Journeys ''Intrepid Journeys'' is a New Zealand television series, which screens on TV ONE in New Zealand and on Vibrant TV Network in the United States. Making its debut in 2003, the show focuses on New Zealand celebrities who travel to exotic countries ...

'', being shot at point-blank range with a 9 mm pistol, while wearing a

ballistic vest A bulletproof vest, also known as a ballistic vest or a bullet-resistant vest, is an item of body armor that helps absorb the impact and reduce or stop penetration to the torso from firearm-fired projectiles and fragmentation from explosions. ...

in Colombia. She has fronted two documentaries for the TV3 show ''

Inside New Zealand Inside may refer to: * Insider, a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 f ...

'', looking at the nation's gangs. For ''The Gangs'', which aired in 2008, she spent 18 months with the gangs, including filming an operating

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamph ...

lab. The second documentary ''The Truth about Asian Crime'' aired in 2009; police cancelled interviews planned for the programme, saying they believed Corkery had a conflict of interest. With business partner Rebekah Hay, she announced in 2010 that she would be opening Pammy's, "the world's first legal bordello ..exclusively for female clients". The Auckland bordello ran an ad in ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'' offering NZ$240 an hour for male

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. Her application for a resource consent was withdrawn in April 2011.

Internet Party

In May 2014, Corkery was hired as the press secretary to

Laila Harré Laila Jane Harré (born 8 January 1966) is a New Zealand politician and trade unionist. She was the first leader of the Internet Party, and stood for Parliament in the 2014 general election through the Helensville electorate. From 1996 to 200 ...

, the leader of the newly established Internet Party. During the 2014 general election campaign, Corkery labelled a journalist a "puffed-up little shit" at the campaign launch for the Internet Party on 25 August 2014. The comments were made in reaction to requests by journalists for interviews with party founder

Kim Dotcom Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz; 21 January 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur and political activist who resides in Glenorchy, New Zealand. He first rose to fame in Germany in the 1990s ...

about comments he had made suggesting he had hacked a German credit rating system. Following the 2014 election, despite no formal announcement of her resignation from the role as press secretary, Corkery has not engaged with the Internet Party publicly, and returned to occasional editorial pieces with the ''New Zealand Herald'' and other media services.

References

External links