Richard Worth

Richard Westwood Worth (3 July 1948 – 10 May 2022) was a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand National Party.

Worth joined the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserves in 1968, rising to captain, and had the role of Chief of Naval Reserves from July 1990 to July 1994.

Worth had a career in law and management, including being the executive chairperson of Simpson Grierson, one of New Zealand's larger law firms, from 1986 to 1999.

He was the consul for Colombia for six years, and later, the honorary consul for Monaco for eight.

He was also a director of Prada America's Cup (NZ) Limited, but would later quit after suggestions it was disloyal for an MP to be linked to a syndicate challenging the New Zealand team.

Worth was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (military division) in the 1994 New Year Honours for his work in the Naval Volunteer Reserves.

Born in Auckland, Worth obtained an LLB (Hons) and Master of Jurisprudence (First Class) from the University of Auckland and a Master of Business Administration (Distinction) from Massey University.

Worth was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (military division) in the 1994 New Year Honours for his work in the Naval Volunteer Reserves.

He was the Member of Parliament for Epsom from 1999 to 2005 and a list MP from 2005 to 2009.

Prior to entering Parliament, Worth studied law and business administration, and had a career in law and management.

such as being the executive chair of the law firm Simpson Grierson.

Worth joined the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserves, rising to captain, and had the role of Chief of Naval Reserves for four years.

He worked as consul to Columbia and honorary consul to Monaco.

Worth entered Parliament when he successfully stood as the National Party's candidate for the Auckland electorate of Epsom in the 1999 election, winning with a majority of 1,908.

National did not win the election overall and so Worth became an Opposition MP.

He was re-elected in the 2002 election with an increased majority of 5,619.

In his first six years in Parliament, Worth served on the Regulations Review committee and Law and Order committee, and had appointments as the National Party spokesperson for defence, veterans' affairs and justice.

He opposed the Civil Union Act 2004, which granted recognition of same-sex couples, proposed the creation of a National Day to replace Waitangi Day, and put forward a private members bill to address miscarriages of justice.

He obtained a PhD from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) with a thesis entitled The Closer Economic Relationship Between Australia and New Zealand: choices other than quiescence or withdrawal in the face of conflict?, which he completed in 2004.

Worth entered Parliament in 2005, after winning the Epsom electorate.

He was in opposition from 2005 to 2008 and in government from 2008 until 2009.

His roles in government included Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Land Information, and Associate Minister of Justice.

Worth lost his electorate seat in the 2005 election to the ACT New Zealand leader Rodney Hide.

Hide had put out a tactical voting message calling on National voters to support him in order to elect a coalition partner for National; without winning Epsom, ACT was unlikely to win another electorate seat or to get five percent of the party vote, so would not enter Parliament.

National and Worth continued to fight for the seat, but Worth lost by more than 3,000 votes.

Worth was however elected as a list MP, and National's party vote in Epsom was the highest of any electorate in the country in that election.

When John Key became National Party leader in November 2006, Worth was reassigned to the economic development portfolio.

As Minister for Land Information, Worth introduced the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill in 2008 that sought to correct historic errors relating to land status.

Worth has also been involved in the Order of St John who, in 2008, made him a Knight of the Order of St John.

Worth was married and had one daughter.

At the 2008 election, Worth lost Epsom again, this time by nearly 13,000 votes, but was re-elected on the party list.

National's highest party vote was again in Epsom.

National also won the election overall.

Worth became Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Land Information, Minister Responsible for Archives New Zealand, Minister Responsible for the National Library and Associate Minister of Justice.

Worth was reportedly a contender for Speaker of the House, with the support of the previous speaker Jonathan Hunt, but Lockwood Smith was selected instead.

Worth resigned from Parliament in June 2009.

Party leader John Key said that Worth's conduct "[did] not befit a minister and I will not have him in my Cabinet", and said if he had not resigned he would have removed him from his Cabinet positions.

While allegations about him were made public and police investigated, Worth was not charged.

It was never publicly announced what caused Key to lose confidence in Worth and require his resignation.

His roles after leaving Parliament included returning to the role of honorary consul to Monaco.