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Richard William Prebble (born 7 February 1948) is a former 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 to 2004.
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; in 1975, she was elected to Labour's national executive.
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. 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.
Perhaps due to his legal background, Prebble became quickly known for his "tough, aggressive, non-compromising debating style." 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.'"Ross Meurant The Beat to the Beehive (1989, Harlen Books, Auckland) p. 174
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). As such, Prebble became grossly overworked and colleagues noticed he paid little attention to his appearance with unkempt hair and ragged suits. Other ministers also felt his portfolio took up too much time in cabinet meetings. Lange, in tune with the public mood, was opposed to public asset sales and impeded Prebble's efforts in selling them. The disagreement became a very public falling-out when Lange stripped him of the State Owned Enterprises (SOE) portfolio on 4 November 1988. Prebble publicly counterattacked in a television interview that night saying that Lange was acting dictatorially and was in no state to be making decisions. Prebble commented: "He Lange said the matter had been eating and gnawing at him and was killing him. I said I didn't think this was a proper basis for making policy. Mr Lange said in that case I should resign." The comments on television by Prebble led to his dismissal from cabinet altogether the following day. Lange stated at a press conference that Prebble had misrepresented the detail and nature of a private conversation between the two.
Prebble returned to the backbenches afterwards. In August 1989, he put himself forward to fill one of two vacant seats in cabinet, but lost a caucus ballot to Annette King. When Lange's replacement as Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer held a complete re-election of cabinet in January 1990, Prebble was elected and returned to the frontbench and cabinet. Palmer gave him the SOE portfolio once again and later appointed him Minister of Police as well.
In the 1995 New Year Honours, Prebble was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for public services.
After leaving parliament Prebble worked making consultancy deals and moved to Vietnam tendering to build New Zealand's first embassy there. In 1996 he also secured a joint-venture deal to restructure Vietnam's railway system (which was still using steam engines). He also joined Auckland businessman Malcolm McConnell to create the company McConnell International.
He became campaign manager for ACT leading up to the 2014 election with his stated aim to bring 9 ACT MP's into Parliament; this did not eventuate however as ACT did not gain any new seats, only retaining Epsom.
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