Bill English Leader of the Opposition

17 October 2001

National staff appointments

"I have appointed Malcolm Fearn as Chief of Staff and Sue Foley as Chief Press Secretary," Hon Bill English said today.

"Both these appointments bring considerable political experience to our team in Parliament," Mr English said.

"Malcolm Fearn is a New Zealander who has been the State Director of the National Party of Australia in Victoria. Prior to that he was Director of Administration for the Liberal Party of Australia in Victoria.

"His experience working in the political arena extends back to 1972 when he became private secretary to the then Housing Minister Roger Douglas.

"He worked for successive Ministers until he became senior private secretary to Sir Robert Muldoon from 1982-1984. When National went into Opposition in 1984 he served as Executive Assistant to successive leaders, Sir Robert Muldoon, Jim McLay and Jim Bolger.

"Sue Foley has broad experience in print and television journalism and has held several senior public relations and communications roles during her 20 years in media work.

"Sue has won major media awards for her work in television where she rose to the position of Chief of Staff for TV3 News. She was public relations manager for the America's Cup Village which included the management of advertising and all media sponsorship contracts.

"She worked for former Opposition Leader Mike Moore in the early 1990s. Her most recent position has been to manage all media inquiries and major communications issues for Tranzrail.

"These new appointments will join Tim Grafton (Director of Strategy) and Bevan Graham (Chief Economic Adviser) as part of my senior team," Mr English said.

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