Richard Prebble

The Honourable Richard Prebble CBE
Minister of State-Owned Enterprises
In office 2 November 1987 – 1990
Prime Minister	David Lange Geoffrey Palmer Mike Moore
Preceded by	New office
Constituency	Auckland Central (1975–1993) Wellington Central (1996–1999) List (1999–2005)
Personal details
Born	(1948-02-07) 7 February 1948 Kent, Great Britain
Political party	Labour (1975–1996) ACT New Zealand (1996 – present)

Richard William Prebble, CBE (born 7 February 1948), was for many years a member of the New Zealand Parliament. 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 1996–2004.

Early and personal life

Prebble was born in Kent, England to Kenneth Ralph Prebble and Mary Prebble (née Thoad), and raised in Auckland. His father was an Anglican priest, and a leader in the Charismatic movement as archdeacon at St. Pauls. Richard attended the University of Auckland, gaining a BA degree in 1970 and an LLB (Hons.) degree in 1972. He was admitted to the Bar in 1971, and practised law in both New Zealand and Fiji.

Prebble's older brother, John Prebble, is a Professor of 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's first wife Doreen, is a Solomon Islander and a former Honorary Consul for the Solomon Islands in New Zealand. His current wife is former Press Gallery radio journalist Ngahuia Wade.

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament

Years	Term	Electorate	List	Party
1975–1978	38th	Auckland Central			Labour
1978–1981	39th	Auckland Central			Labour
1981–1984	40th	Auckland Central			Labour
1984–1987	41st	Auckland Central			Labour
1987–1990	42nd	Auckland Central			Labour
1990–1993	43rd	Auckland Central			Labour
1996–1999	45th	Wellington Central	1		ACT
1999–2002	46th	List	1		ACT
2002–2005	47th	List	1		ACT

Labour in opposition

Prebble was originally a member of the Labour Party, and stood as its candidate for the Auckland Central electorate in the 1975 election. His candidacy was successful.

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"

Once inside Parliament, Prebble became aligned with Roger Douglas, leader of the right-wing faction within the Labour Party. Douglas supported the privatization of state assets, the deregulation of the economy, and the removal of trade barriers such as tariffs and subsidies. The party's traditional left-wing faction strongly opposed all these policies.

Cabinet minister

When Labour Party won the 1984 election, Douglas became Minister of Finance, and began implementing his economic policy. Prebble, along with David Caygill, proved one of his greatest supporters, Douglas, Prebble, and Caygill becoming sometimes known as "the Troika".

Prebble's ministerial roles granted him significant opportunities to pursue his policies - from 1984 to 1987, he served as Minister of Transport and Minister of Railways. In these roles he promoted the privatization of state-owned transport infrastructure. He also served as Associate Minister of Finance during this period, allowing him to support Douglas more closely. In 1987, he became Minister for State-owned Enterprises, Postmaster General, Minister of Works, and Minister of Broadcasting, portfolios in which he continued to advance Douglas's policies. During his ministerial career, Prebble was effectively placed in charge of the ongoing privatisation of government assets.

In February 1986 as Minister of Transport he was informed that after the sinking of the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov, the Soviets would refuse to take part in a formal marine inquiry. Prebble felt this had to be kept from the public and the fact covered up at the time, resulting in a public outcry over the inadequate preliminary inquiry which failed to identify the underlying causes of the accident or any of the many deficiencies existing in the maritime industries of New Zealand and the Soviet Union at the time. He also effectively side-stepped the Official Information Act by having most of the former Ministry of Transport files transferred into the National Archives under his exclusive access control under the guise of "personal papers". No researcher has ever been permitted access to these files despite numerous requests.

Prebble's position became troubled, however, because of growing tensions between Douglas and the Prime Minister, David Lange. While Lange had supported Douglas's reforms in the beginning, believing that they were necessary to end the economic problems that the government inherited, he became increasingly hostile to the scale and pace that Douglas demanded - Lange tended to see the reforms as a means to an end, while Douglas considered deregulation and privatisation as important goals in and of themselves. In November 1988, after a long period of bitter dispute, Prebble was fired from Cabinet, and Douglas was forced to resign. When fired from Cabinet in 1988, Prebble held a State House Eviction Party before leaving his ministerial house.

See also: Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

Labour in opposition

Richard Prebble on the campaign trail in 1993

Prebble retained his Auckland Central seat in the 1990 election, which Labour lost, arguably because of public dissatisfaction with the reforms. In the 1993 election, however, Prebble lost his seat to Sandra Lee-Vercoe, deputy leader of the left-wing Alliance. For the next three years, he worked as a consultant.

In the 1995 New Year Honours, Prebble was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for public services.

ACT New Zealand

New Zealand's switch to the MMP electoral system, which made it easier for smaller parties to enter Parliament, provided the means for Prebble to return to national politics. When Douglas established the ACT New Zealand party, dedicated to the same laissez-faire economic policies he had promoted while in power, Prebble quickly became involved. In March 1996, Douglas stepped down as the new party's leader, and Prebble took over.

1996 campaign

In the 1996 election, the first to be held under MMP, ACT won eight seats in Parliament. Prebble won the Wellington Central electorate after a hotly contested campaign.

Views vary over whether he won Wellington Central on his own merits or because of an implied endorsement from National Prime Minister Jim Bolger. ACT had by this time started billing itself as a natural coalition partner for National—a sharp departure from Prebble and Douglas' roots in Labour. If Prebble won Wellington Central, it would be able to enter Parliament even if it failed to cross the five-percent threshold for MMP.

Two days before the election Jim Bolger admitted in an interview with Paul Holmes that the polls pointed to a Prebble victory in Wellington Central although he thought it a pity because he liked the National candidate, Mark Thomas. Some argue that Prebble won because of this implied endorsement. Others argue that Prebble had already won, independent media polls already having put him in the lead a week out from the election. In the end, it proved to be moot, as ACT won 6.1% of the vote of the nationwide party vote, easily clearing the threshold.

1999 campaign

Prebble lost his Wellington Central seat (the boundaries of which were significantly changed by the Electoral Commission, to Prebble's disfavour) to Labour's Marian Hobbs in the 1999 election, but remained in Parliament as a list MP and leader of ACT. After the 2002 election, speculation grew that Prebble would be replaced as leader, but a challenge failed to eventuate.

Retirement

In February 2004, after a particularly poor poll result, speculation about Prebble's position appeared once again, with second-ranked Rodney Hide cited as a potential challenger. No challenge eventuated. On 27 April 2004, however, Prebble announced his voluntary retirement from the leadership, saying that "there comes a point in politics when there's a time for a change, when there's time for a fresh face". After a so-called "primary" contest, Hide took over as ACT leader on 13 June 2004.

Prebble initially made no announcement about whether he would remain in Parliament beyond the following election but indicated that he was "leaning towards" leaving. In mid-July 2004, however, he announced that he would seek the office of Speaker upon the retirement of Jonathan Hunt. However, he did not stand for election when the new Speaker was elected in March 2005 as he had decided to retire at the next election.

He delivered his valedictory speech to a full gallery on 28 July 2005.

Since the 2005 election Prebble has increasingly been involved in print media and on television as a political commentator. He continues to hold directorships with a number of New Zealand companies, including freight transport firm Mainfreight.

Prebble's latest book, Out of the Red, was released on 23 October (Labour Day), 2006.

Books and party political publications

• Values not politics: ACT New Zealand campaign manifesto: general election 1996, Auckland, [N.Z.]: ACT New Zealand, 1996, ISBN 0-477-01901-3

• Values not politics: the first 1000 days, Wellington, [N.Z.]: ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office, 2000, ISBN 0-477-01901-3

• ACT Members of Parliament. (2001), Closing the gaps: policy papers, Wellington, [N.Z.]: ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office, ISBN 0-9582178-1-5

• Prebble's contribution was the paper: "New Zealand: tenth by 2010."

• from ACT Members of Parliament. (2002), Old values: new ideas, Wellington, [N.Z.]: ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office, ISBN 0-477-01964-1

• Prebble's contribution was the paper: "Old values, new ideas."

• Prebble, Richard (1983), Labour's views on Transport Amendment Bill (no. 5) and future transport policy, n.p.: n.p.

• Prebble, Richard (1987), Muldoon vs. Bolger, Wellington, [N.Z.]: R. Prebble

• Prebble, Richard (1996), I've been thinking, Auckland, [N.Z.]: Seaview Publishing, ISBN 1-86958-170-9
  • The second edition of this book is entitled Now it's time to act.

• Prebble, Richard (1997), What happens next, Auckland, [N.Z.]: Seascape Press, ISBN 0-473-04859-0

• Prebble, Richard (1999), I've been writing, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Fraser Holland Publishers, ISBN 0-473-06031-0

• Prebble, Richard (2006), Now it's time to act, Auckland,[N.Z.]: Seaview Press, ISBN 1-86958-170-9
  • This is the second edition of I've been thinking - containing additional material.

• Prebble, Richard (2006), Out of the red, Rotorua, [N.Z.]: The Letter Ltd., ISBN 0-473-11249-3

• Prebble, Richard; Bassett, Michael; Harris, Peter (1978), Environment, energy, forestry: Labour's 1978 manifesto, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Labour

• Prebble, Richard (1987), National's promises, promises, promises-- : or, how to buy an election with other people's money: or, the world's longest political suicide note, Wellington, [N.Z.]: N.Z. Labour Party {{citation}}: Invalid |display-authors=1 (help)

• Prebble, Richard (2003), Liberal thinking, Wellington, [N.Z.]: ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office, ISBN 0-477-01979-X {{citation}}: Invalid |display-authors=1 (help)

• Prebble's contributions are the papers: "Why I do not vote National"; and (co-authored with Deborah Coddington) "Lessons of freedom and choice."