Richard Francis Walls (9 October 1937 – 30 October 2011) was a New Zealand politician and businessman.

Member of Parliament

Walls was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Dunedin North Dunedin North, also known as North Dunedin, is a major inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin, located northeast of the city centre. It contains many of the city's major institutions, including the city's university, polytechnic, ma ...

from

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

to 1978. A member of the National Party, he won the normally safe

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

seat as part of Robert Muldoon's landslide victory of 1975. He was the first National MP to represent a significant portion of Dunedin, a long-standing Labour stronghold, in 21 years. Walls was defeated after only one term by Labour's Stan Rodger; to date, he is the last National MP to represent Dunedin. Following his defeat, Walls attempted to re-enter parliament by seeking the National nomination for the Auckland seat of in a 1980 by-election. He made the initial five person shortlist, but after being hospitalised suddenly, he was too ill to travel to Auckland for the selection meeting.

Local-body politics

Walls was first elected onto

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council ( mi, Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ōtepoti) is the local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Dunedin is Jul ...

in 1980. Prior to that he served on the St. Kilda Borough Council (1962–1965) and on the Otago Harbour Board (1965–1974; Chairman 1971–1973). He was

Mayor of Dunedin The Mayor of Dunedin is the head of the local government, the city council of Dunedin, New Zealand. The Mayor's role is "to provide leadership to the other elected members of the territorial authority, be a leader in the community and perform c ...

for two terms from 1989 to 1995, when he was defeated by

Sukhi Turner Dame Sukhinder Kaur Gill Turner (born Sukhinder Kaur Gill, 13 April 1952), commonly known as Sukhi Turner, is an Indian-born-New Zealand politician who served as the Mayor of Dunedin, New Zealand, from 1995 until her retirement from the positio ...

. He was re-elected to the Dunedin City Council as a councillor in 1998. He remained a city councillor until 2010 and was chair of the Finance and Strategy Committee from 2007 to 2010. In the

2010 Dunedin local elections The Dunedin local elections, 2010 were part of the 2010 New Zealand local elections, to elect members to sub-national councils and boards. The Dunedin elections are used to elect the Mayor of Dunedin and to elect councilors to the Dunedin City Coun ...

, he stood in the Central ward, but was unsuccessful.

Outside politics

In 2010 Walls was chairman of Dunedin International Airport Limited; a fellow of the

Institute of Directors in New Zealand The Institute of Directors in New Zealand (IoD) is a New Zealand-based organisation that supports, represents and sets standards for directors in New Zealand. It began 40 years ago as a division of the Institute of Directors The Institute of D ...

(FInstD) and a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management (FNZIM). He was a justice of the peace and was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

for public services in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours. He died suddenly in his Dunedin home on 30 October 2011 at the age of 74, and is survived by his wife June and three children.

References

* The Cyclopedia of Otago-Southland 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Walls, Richard 1937 births 2011 deaths Mayors of Dunedin New Zealand National Party MPs New Zealand businesspeople Companions of the Queen's Service Order New Zealand jurists New Zealand MPs for Dunedin electorates Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1978 New Zealand general election New Zealand justices of the peace