Katherine Rich (née Allison, born 16 December 1967) served as a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the National Party from 1999 to 2008.
In January 2005, however, she refused to give full support to the "tough-on-welfare" Orewa Speech by then-party leader Don Brash, who demoted her to tenth place and dismissed her as social welfare spokesperson and gave the portfolio to Judith Collins.
[citation needed] Some notable achievements included co-presenting to Parliament a petition for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Peter Ellis case (2003); exposing a huge rise in the number of unallocated cases of physically and sexually abused children (2005); highlighting Labour Government inaction over understaffed PlunketLine (2005); leading National's support for a bill to allow mothers in prison to keep their babies with them until they turn two (2006); revealing irresponsible government spending, including the hip-hop tour spending debacle (2004).
[19] Emails leaked to political writer Nicky Hager implied that Rich, in her role as Chief Executive of the Food & Grocery Council, and while on the board of the Health Promotion Agency (a Crown entity), had given prominent blogger Cameron Slater information that rebutted comments made by academics.
[20][21][22] HPA chair Lee Mathias said she believed any potential conflicts of interest with Rich's dual roles had been managed in terms of the State Services Commission's guidelines.
Accusations that I had broken the law and not declared interests were disappointing, wrong and defamatory.”[26] On 3 March 2021, the New Zealand news site Newsroom reported Rich and the Food and Grocery Council had made a confidential settlement with academics Boyd Swinburn, Doug Sellman and Shane Bradbrook after they sued for defamation.
She told NZ Listener that Bradbrook, whose complaints comprised nearly half of the trio's action, earlier conceded his case and was ordered to pay "considerable" costs.
She also said the [plaintiffs failed to prove one of their most serious allegations – that she and the Food and Grocery Council planted objectionable material blackguarding them on the Whale Oil blog.