Rick Barker

Last updated

New Zealand Parliament
The Honourable
Rick Barker
Rick Barker.jpg
30th Minister of Internal Affairs
In office
19 October 2005 –19 November 2008
YearsTermElectorateListParty
1993 –1996 44th Hastings Labour
1996 –1999 45th Tukituki 28 Labour
1999 –2002 46th Tukituki31 Labour
2002 –2005 47th Tukituki24 Labour
2005 –2008 48th List21 Labour
2008 –2011 49th List 34 Labour

Barker became a member of the Labour Party in 1973, served for a time as the Industrial Representative on the party's National Council and was also junior vice-president of the party. In the lead up to the 1993 election Barker sought the Labour nomination for the normally safe Labour seat of Heretaunga, but lost out to political advisor Heather Simpson. [3] Later in 1993 he won the Labour nomination for the Hastings electorate, defeating Auckland Tamoana Freezing Workers' Union president Pat Weir. His selection was a surprise as Weir won the floor vote of local members, but the selection panel chose Barker. The Freezing Workers' Union laid a complaint with the Labour Party's head office alleging the panel had been stacked, an assertion rejected by party secretary Tony Timms. [4]

At the 1993 election, he succeeded in winning the Hastings electorate, winning a seat that was previously held by the National Party. Soon after entering parliament he supported Helen Clark in her successful leadership challenge to Mike Moore. [5] He was re-elected in 1996, 1999, and 2002 for the reconfigured seat of Tukituki. In 2005 he lost the seat in what was a large swing against the sitting Labour government in the provincial areas and returned to Parliament as a list MP. In 2008 Barker tried unsuccessfully to regain the seat of Tukituki and for the second time was returned to parliament as a Labour list MP. He stood in one of the safest National seats, Taranaki-King Country, in 2011 and was not high enough on the Labour list to remain an MP. [6]

Cabinet minister

In 2002 Labour was re-elected for a second term and Barker was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Customs, Minister for Courts, Associate Minister of Justice, and Associate Minister of Social Services and Employment. During the 2002–2005 term, he was given additional responsibility as Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector and Minister for Small Business.

In 2005, Barker was re-appointed to Cabinet [7] as the Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Courts, Minister of Civil Defence and Minister of Veterans' Affairs. Barker lost his ministerial warrants following Labour's defeat in the 2008 election; however, Barker was appointed by the House of Representatives to the role of Assistant Speaker for the 49th New Zealand Parliament for the session 2008–11.

As a cabinet minister, Barker was entitled to the title of The Honourable and became The Hon. Rick (Richard) Barker [8] which is a title he was granted for the rest of his life [9] after his term of office.

Post-parliamentary roles

Barker was elected to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council in 2013, representing the Hastings constituency. In 2016 he was appointed deputy chair of the council. On 30 June 2021 he was elected chair, holding the role until October 2022. [10]

In June 2018, Barker was appointed chairperson of the West Coast District Health Board by the Minister of Health, David Clark. He was reappointed in December 2019. [11]

Personal life

He is married to Patsy and has three children. [12]

Notes

  1. ↑ "New Zealand Hansard - Members Sworn Volume:651;Page:2". New Zealand Parliament.
  2. ↑ Mold, Francesca (13 May 2003). "Barker joins cabinet". The New Zealand Herald . Retrieved 11 November 2007.
  3. ↑ Parussini 2020, p. 221.
  4. ↑ Murphy, Tim (22 January 1993). "Labour cracks show". The New Zealand Herald . p. 1.
  5. ↑ Parussini 2020, p. 230.
  6. ↑ "New Zealand Parliament - Barker, Hon Rick". Archived from the original on 5 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Members of Executive Council Appointed". The New Zealand Gazette. The Department of Internal Affairs: 4528. 21 October 2005. 7115. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  8. ↑ "Members of Executive Council Appointed". The New Zealand Gazette. The Department of Internal Affairs: 2948. 20 August 2002. 5519. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  9. ↑ "Retention of the Title "The Honourable"". The New Zealand Gazette. The Department of Internal Affairs: 5156. 18 December 2008. 9578. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  10. ↑ "Former Cabinet minister takes top role at Hawke's Bay Regional Council". RNZ. 30 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  11. ↑ "2019 DHB Board Chairs" (PDF). Government of New Zealand . Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  12. ↑ Who's Who 1993, p. 15.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Carter (New Zealand politician)</span> New Zealand politician

Christopher Joseph Carter is a former New Zealand Labour Party and independent Member of the New Zealand Parliament. He was a senior Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand, serving lastly as Minister of Education, Minister Responsible for the Education Review Office and Minister of Ethnic Affairs. He was the Member of Parliament for the Te Atatu electorate, where he was first elected in 1993. He did not win re-election in 1996, but won a new and expanded Te Atatu seat in 1999. In 2010, he was suspended from the Labour Party caucus following a dispute with party leader Phil Goff, shortly afterwards he became an independent MP. He was expelled by the Labour Party for breaching the Party's constitution in bringing the Party in disrepute, on 11 October 2010. In September 2011 Carter resigned from Parliament following his appointment to a United Nations position in Afghanistan where he served for 4 years. In 2015 he was appointed to head UN operations in Rakhine State in Myanmar where he served for 3 years. In 2018 he rejoined the New Zealand Labour Party and stood for election as a Labour Party representative in the 2019 New Zealand local elections. Carter was elected and appointed as Chairperson of the Henderson Massey Local Board with 11,250 votes. He also won election in 2019 as one of the seven elected board members of the Waitemata District Health Board with 14,593 votes. Both positions have three year terms.

Sir Thomas Kerry Burke is a former New Zealand politician and Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He was a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1990, and later served twelve years on Canterbury Regional Council from 1998 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pita Sharples</span> New Zealand politician (born 1941)

Sir Pita Russell Sharples is a New Zealand Māori academic and politician, who was a co-leader of the Māori Party from 2004 to 2013, and a minister outside Cabinet in the National Party-led government from 2008 to 2014. He was the member of Parliament for the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate in Auckland from 2005 to 2014. He stepped down as co-leader of the Māori Party in July 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Hughes</span> New Zealand politician

Darren Colyn Hughes is a New Zealand former Member of Parliament between 2002 and 2011, first elected at the age of 24. He represented the Labour Party and was a Minister outside Cabinet in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Swain (politician)</span> New Zealand politician

Paul Desmond Swain is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 1990 until 2008, representing the Labour Party. From 2010 to 2019, he was a councillor on the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Jack Arnold Elder is a New Zealand former politician. He was an MP from 1984 to 1999, representing the Labour Party, New Zealand First and Mauri Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Austin</span> New Zealand politician

Margaret Elizabeth Austin is a former New Zealand politician. She was an MP from 1984 to 1996, representing first the Labour Party and then briefly United New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Northey</span> New Zealand politician

Richard John Northey is a New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1984 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. He served on the Auckland Council between 2010 and 2013, and is a member of the Labour Party.

Craig Raymond Robert Foss is a New Zealand investment banker and politician. He was elected to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council in October 2019 and was previously the Member of Parliament for Tukituki from 2005 until 2017.

The New Zealand Democratic Coalition was a proposed moderate political party intended to contest the 1996 General Election. It would have been led by former Prime Minister Mike Moore and was intended to capture the balance of power on election night. Ultimately it was not registered and Moore stayed with Labour for the 1996 election.

His Excellency Mahinda Buddhadasa Samarasinghe is a former MP and the current Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States and Mexico and High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tukituki (New Zealand electorate)</span> Electoral district in New Zealand

Tukituki is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, and it returns one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was established for the 1996 general election and is named after the Tukituki River. The current member for Tukituki is Catherine Wedd of the National Party, who won the seat from first-term Labour MP Anna Lorck at the 2023 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncan MacIntyre (New Zealand politician)</span> New Zealand politician

Brigadier Duncan MacIntyre was a New Zealand politician of the National Party. He served as the eighth deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1981 to 1984 under Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.

Jeffrey William Whittaker is a former New Zealand politician of the National Party.

Edward Emanuel Isbey was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

David John Butcher is a former New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was a Cabinet minister in the Fourth Labour Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angus McLagan</span> New Zealand politician

Angus McLagan was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was a member of the Legislative Council and later Member of Parliament for Riccarton. He was a cabinet minister from 1942 to 1949 in the First Labour Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meka Whaitiri</span> New Zealand politician

Melissa Heni Mekameka Whaitiri is a New Zealand politician and former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. She was first elected to Parliament in the 2013 Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by-election for the Labour Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Yule</span> New Zealand politician (born 1963)

Lawrence Arden Yule is a New Zealand politician. He was Mayor of Hastings from 2001 to 2017, and a Member of Parliament representing the Tukituki electorate for the National Party from 2017 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Lorck</span> New Zealand politician

Anna Louise Lorck is a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. She served in the New Zealand House of Representatives as the MP for Tukituki from 2020 to 2023.

References

New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Hastings
1993–1996		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Tukituki
1996–2005		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Customs
2002–2005		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Courts
2003–2005		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Civil Defence
2005–2008		Succeeded by
Minister of Internal Affairs
2005–2008		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Senior Whip of the Labour Party
1999–2002

2011		Succeeded by
Preceded bySucceeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.