Political party Labour Party Party New Zealand Labour Party Died March 29, 2013 | Role New Zealand Politician Name Warren Freer Succeeded by Helen Clark | |
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Preceded by Arthur Shapton Richards | ||
Warren Wilfred Freer (27 December 1920 – 29 March 2013) was a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party.
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Early life
Freer was born in 1920. His parents were Charles and May Freer. Both lived in Waihi during the Waihi miners' strike in 1913 and had to leave the town. They married in 1914 in Remuera. As a school boy at Auckland Grammar School, Warren Freer suffered a spinal injury, and he subsequently did not join the war.
Member of Parliament
Freer stood unsuccessfully in the 1946 election for the "hopeless" (for Labour) Eden electorate. He was then asked to stand for the Mount Albert electorate in a 1947 by-election, which he won, and he then represented the Mount Albert electorate in Parliament from 1947 to 1981, when he retired, having held the seat for 34 years.
He was only 26 when he entered Parliament following the death of Arthur Richards, and was relatively unknown to Labour executive members, but local supporter Dick Barter convinced Peter Fraser that his work in Eden was adequate apprenticeship.
In 1955 he was the first Western politician to visit China, against the wishes of Labour leader Walter Nash, but with the encouragement of Prime Minister Sidney Holland.
He was succeeded by Helen Clark and then David Shearer.
He was a cabinet minister in the Third Labour Government of 1972–1975, holding the portfolios of Trade and Industry and of Energy Resources. He stood as a candidate for the deputy leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1974 after Norman Kirk's death only to prevent Arthur Faulkner winning on the first ballot, hoping that either Bob Tizard or Colin Moyle would win the subsequent ballot(s). He lost on the third ballot. Initially he had no intention of standing, and preferred Tizard (who won). He was acting Prime Minister three times, and was "appalled" by the amount of paper Kirk was given to read, with "international secrets" that he could read in that week's Time. On the first occasion, Kirk congratulated him that there were no industrial disputes and that he had not gone to war against anyone.
Later years
In the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours, Freer was made a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services. In 1996, he moved to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.
Warren Freer Park, in the Auckland suburb of Sandringham, is named for him.
Family
Freer's first wife died in 2003; they had been married for 62 years. His second marriage was to Joyce. Freer died on 29 March 2013 after a long illness. He is survived by his two sons from his first marriage, and by his second wife.