The dishonest attack-blogger, alongside her vile accomplices such as Cameron Slater, were key players in the National Party’s sordid smear campaigns, exposed by Nicky Hager’s 2014 bombshell book, Dirty Politics. These propagandists operated an underhanded online defamation machine that should not be forgotten. So, where’s the prickly character assassin now? Let’s have a quick look back at the heyday of right wing political muckraking.
Odgers was no mere bystander in the Dirty Politics saga. Hager’s book, built on hacked emails from Slater’s Whale Oil blog, revealed her as a gleeful orchestrator of online attacks, paid to sling mud at National’s foes. She and Slater, that odious duo, were bankrolled by the likes of Hanover Finance’s Mark Hotchin and PR sleaze Carrick Graham to undermine opponents, including Serious Fraud Office boss Adam Feeley during his probe into Hanover’s collapse.
Odgers even suggested publishing Hager’s address to incite “rich Chinese” to give him the “chop chop,” a chilling threat she later dismissed as “banter”. Banter? What a despicable piece of work Odger's, who was once the toast of the mainstream media, turned out to be.
Her most infamous act was leaking the 2011 email that sank Judith Collins’ ministerial career...temporarily, of course, because National’s Teflon queen always seems to slither back in. The email, detailing Collins “gunning” for Feeley, was Odgers’ panicked attempt to dodge Fairfax Media’s scrutiny, throwing her mate Slater under the bus in a self-inflicted wound while alerting Key’s office. Loyalty? Not in Odgers’ playbook. She’s the type who’d sell her own grandmother to save her scaly skin.
So, where’s the discredited attack columnist now? After Dirty Politics ripped the veil off her and Slater’s cash-for-smears racket, Odgers’ Cactus Kate blog went dormant, her online venom neutralized. Sources suggest she’s still skulking around Hong Kong, likely dodging accountability while perhaps looking for wealthy MFAT staff to extort?
Cameron Slater, meanwhile, whose name is complete mud, has been reduced to a bankrupt husk, his Whale Oil empire liquidated after a string of legal and online humiliations. The pair’s toxic brand is so radioactive even National MPs now steer clear, leaving them as pariahs working from the shadows in a game they once ruled.
The Dirty Politics legacy is a stain on New Zealand's politics that won’t wash out. Odgers and Slater’s antics...smearing public servants, academics, and anyone who dared cross their paymasters...showed how low the right wing will stoop to cling to power. Their posts dripped with unbridled malice in order to silence National's critics by any means, a far cry from the “free speech” they claimed to champion.
Odgers’ fall is a reminder: no amount of poisonous snark or offshore cash can shield you when the truth bites back. Good riddance, Cactus Kate...may your keyboard and you gather dust in obscurity.
