Deborah Coddington
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Deborah Coddington (5 February 1953 - ) is a New Zealand journalist and former politician. She is a member of ACT New Zealand.
Coddington was born in Waipukurau. From 1973 to 1984, she worked as a magazine journalist, but in 1985, moved to Russell, a town in the Bay of Islands, where she was owner and operator of a café and restaurant. In 1989, she returned to journalism, writing for the Metro and North & South magazines. In 1993, she became a broadcaster, working for the BBC World Service's New Zealand operation. She then returned to magazines, becoming senior feature writer for North & South. In 2002, she won the Qantas Senior Feature Writer of the Year Award for her work.
Coddington's first involvement in politics was with the Libertarianz party, and in the 1996 elections and the 1999 elections, she was ranked second and third, respectively, on the Libertarianz party list. The party won insufficient votes to enter Parliament. Later, however, Coddington transferred her support to the ACT New Zealand party, and was ranked sixth on ACT's list in the 2002 elections. ACT won sufficient votes for her to enter Parliament.
Coddington has a relatively high public profile. She is known as the compiler of a register of sex offenders which aims to publicly identify those convicted of sex crimes. This register, first published in 1996, generated considerable criticism from those who alleged it breached the rights of those named in it. Coddington has also had an unusually high amount of media interest in her personal life — early in 2004, the financial problems of Alister Taylor, her partner, were widely reported (as was her subsequent split from him), and later the same year, the media reported that Coddington was distressed about attention she was receiving from Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable. Coddington described the media's portrayal of events as "wildly overblown".
On 15 April 2005, Coddington announced that she would not be seeking re-election in the 2005. In the announcement, she said that she did not regret entering politics, but said that she was no longer as eager to fight political battles: "I find it difficult coming into the House and attacking people. I'm not angry any more. And I don't see things in black and white." Coddington attributed her change in perspective primarily to her recent marriage to Wellington lawyer Colin Carruthers.
Coddington has returned to journalism, writing for the Herald on Sunday and North & South.
