Derek Francis Quigley, QSO (born 31 January 1932) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a prominent member of the National Party during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was known for his support of free market economics and trade liberalisation. Quigley left the National Party after clashing with its leadership, and later co-founded the ACT party.
Early life
Quigley was born in 1932 in Waikari, a small town in the northern Canterbury region. He attended Waipara Primary school before continuing with education in Christchurch; first at Medbury School, then Christ's College, followed by Canterbury University. He later donated his personal parliamentary library, which covers his political career until 1984, to Canterbury University's Macmillan Brown Library.
He farmed at Waipara from 1949. He gained one of two scholarships for young farmers from the Meat and Wool Board and used it to study farming in Britain and the United States. He completed a law degree while farming and joined a Christchurch law firm, where he became a senior partner and practised as a lawyer.
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Member of Parliament
Quigley was National's electorate chairman for the Rangiora electorate. In the Canterbury-Westland division, he was deputy chairman. He was a member of the Dominion Council and served on its executive committee.
As a 30-year-old, Quigley stood as the National Party's candidate in the 1962 by-election in the Timaru electorate, but was beaten by Labour's Basil Arthur. He also stood in Sydenham in the 1960 and 1963 elections.
Quigley stood in the Rangiora electorate in the 1975 election. The electorate had been taken from National by Kerry Burke of the Labour Party at the previous election, but was won back by Quigley.
Cabinet Minister
After three years as a backbencher, Quigley was appointed to Cabinet, and held a number of ministerial roles. He was Minister of Housing (1978-1982), Minister of Tourism (1981), Minister of Works and Development (1981-1982), and Associate Minister of Finance (1978-1981). He held further minor ministerial posts as Minister of Earthquake and War Damage (1978-1982), Minister of Government Life Insurance (1978-1982), Minister of Public Trust (1978-1981), and Minister of State Insurance (1978-1982).
Quigley rapidly earned the hostility of senior National Party figures, however, with his criticism of the government's economic policies. The Prime Minister of the day, Robert Muldoon, favoured decidedly interventionist policies, but Quigley preferred a more laissez-faire approach, and considered Muldoon's interventionism to be contrary to the traditional spirit of the National Party. In February 1981, Quigley contested the deputy leadership of the party, despite Muldoon openly saying that he could not work with him. Quigley's main opponent (and Muldoon's strong favourite) was Duncan MacIntyre, a long-serving Muldoon loyalist. Bill Birch retired from the contest in favour of MacIntyre, and Jim Bolger was eliminated first. Quigley was narrowly defeated by MacIntyre.
A week after Quigley lost the deputy leadership race, he was dismissed by Muldoon as Associate Finance Minister, reducing his ability to criticise Muldoon's economic policies effectively; Warren Cooper succeeded him.
Quigley nevertheless continued his attacks. In June the following year, he made a public denunciation of the government's policies, saying that the state should have a passive role in the economy. Muldoon and his allies reacted furiously to this public criticism, and Quigley was given the choice of either giving a public apology or resigning from Cabinet; he chose to resign. At the 1984 election, he resigned from politics altogether, becoming a business consultant.
ACT New Zealand
One of his many consulting projects was to chair a major review of New Zealand defence for the Lange government.
In 1995, Quigley re-entered the political arena, joining forces with Roger Douglas to form the ACT New Zealand party. The new MMP electoral system, which made it easier for smaller parties to win seats, convinced Quigley that a strongly free-market party could indeed be successful. In the 1996 election, the first conducted under MMP, Quigley was returned to Parliament as an ACT list MP and chaired the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee during the next three years. Under Quigley's chairmanship, the select committee produced The Defence Beyond 2000 Report, which became the blueprint for the Clark government's radical restructuring of the New Zealand Defence Force.
Quigley did not stand for re-election in 1999 election and was immediately appointed by the incoming Prime Minister to review the contract the previous government had signed with the United States for New Zealand to acquire 28 near new F-16 fighter aircraft. Quigley advised the government to renegotiate the contract and acquire a lesser number of aircraft. One of his reasons for this recommendation was that cancellation of the contract would result in the abandonment of the RNZAF's air combat capability. The government disputed this and cancelled the contract. Two years later, it disbanded the RNZAF's air combat capability, just as predicted.
Since early 2004, Quigley and his family have been living in Canberra, where Quigley is a Visiting Fellow at ANU's Strategic & Defence Studies Centre. He is writing extensively on trans Tasman and regional security issues and on the ongoing situation between the United States and New Zealand over the latter's anti-nuclear policy.
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