Richard Prebble

Richard William Prebble (born 7 February 1948) is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament.

Prebble was originally a member of the Labour Party and in 1965 he became chairman of the Electorate Committee.

At the and elections he was a campaign organiser for Auckland Central MP Norman Douglas.

When Douglas announced his retirement Prebble was selected, aged 27, to replace him as Labour's candidate in the seat.

He was educated at Auckland Grammar School before becoming a barrister and solicitor in 1971.

From 1973 to 1974 he worked overseas in Fiji where he practised law.

Prebble's older brother, John Prebble KC, is an emeritus professor in law at Victoria University of Wellington.

His younger brother, Mark Prebble was the State Services Commissioner and head of New Zealand's public service.

John's daughter Antonia Prebble is an actor with a number of television roles.

Prebble has been married three times.

His first wife was Nancy Cocks, and his second was Doreen Kuper, a former Honorary Consul for the Solomon Islands in New Zealand.

His current wife is former Press Gallery radio journalist Ngahuia Wade.

Cocks was a member of the Labour Party's Fijian branch and in 1975 she was elected to Labour's national executive.

He was successful in being elected in the Auckland Central electorate at the 1975 election.

Soon after his election, owing mainly to Labour's drastic reduction in MPs in their 1975 defeat, he was made Labour's spokesman for race relations and the environment.

From 1975 to 1984 Labour was in opposition, and Ross Meurant recalled that "Sir Rob has often said that when he was in government, the most irritating and damaging of his opponents was Richard Prebble. 'Always at it' said Sir Rob, 'Always a bother to us. Even if some thought he was mad the way he carried on, we never knew what he was going to come up with next.'"

Following the 1978 election he was given the more prominent portfolio of justice by Labour leader Bill Rowling.

From 1978 until 1980 he was additionally the Labour Party's junior whip.

In 1979 Rowling decided to create a separate shadow cabinet above the caucus.

Prebble was given a seat in the shadow cabinet, but was displeased at the change in portfolio allocations in which he lost justice and was instead given immigration, regional development and the environment.

As a result, he refused to join the shadow cabinet to protest his allocation of portfolios he did not want.

Colleagues described the move as petulant, with Prebble countering by saying "The difference in opposition to being in a shadow cabinet and being a backbencher is only in name. It's a shadow rather than a substance."

He resigned as junior whip as well and returned to the backbench until March 1981 when he rejoined the shadow cabinet as Shadow Minister for Social Welfare and Pacific Island Affairs.

On 2 September 1983 Prebble was injured in a head-on car collision whilst he was returning to Wellington after addressing the Taxi Proprietors' Association conference.

He was taken to Dannevirke Hospital and was treated for a concussion and broken pelvis.

Owed to his legal background Prebble became quickly known for his "tough, aggressive, non-compromising debating style."

When the Fourth Labour Government was formed, after the 1984 election, Prebble was elected to the cabinet and was appointed Minister of Transport, Minister of Civil Aviation and Meteorological Services, Minister of Railways and Minister of Pacific Island Affairs.

He pressed for a Pacific affairs ministerial portfolio to be established, having an interest in the experiences of Pacific Island New Zealanders due to his time working in Fiji and the large concentration of Pacific Islanders living in his constituency.

During the government Prebble aligned himself with Roger Douglas, the controversial Minister of Finance, and was an associate finance minister.

Douglas, Prebble and David Caygill were together dubbed "the Treasury Troika", and were responsible for most of the economic reform undertaken by the Labour government.

The "Rogernomics" reforms, which were based on free market economic theory, were unpopular with many traditional Labour supporters.

In August 1988 Prebble spoke at a public meeting in Sydenham and was greeted with jeering crowds of Labour supporters who were angry with the reforms and their consequent unemployment.

While being interviewed by a television reporter he was hit, mid-sentence, by an egg thrown from the crowd.

The egg was thrown by Christopher Owen-Cooper, a former serviceman who served in both World War II and the Korean War, who faced a disorderly behaviour charge.

Owen-Cooper was quoted by The Dominion newspaper as saying "We've all built up frustration, we're sick of what the Government's doing. They [politicians] can't give us any answers so it was time someone gave them the hurry along."

He was discharged but paid $50 in costs.

Prebble held more portfolios than any other minister in the government as his post of Minister for State Owned Enterprises absorbed almost all the portfolios of government owned operations and assets which were scheduled to be privatised (much to the opposition of the public).

Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004.

Prebble was born in Kent, England, to Kenneth Ralph Prebble and Mary Prebble (née Thoad), and raised in Auckland.

His father was an Anglo-Catholic Anglican priest, and a leader in the Charismatic Renewal as archdeacon at St. Pauls, on retirement he and Mary were received into the Roman Catholic Church.