Rick Barker
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The Honourable Rick Barker |
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| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Hastings |
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In office 1993 – 1996 |
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| Preceded by | Jeff Whittaker |
| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Tukituki |
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In office 1996 – 2005 |
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| Succeeded by | Craig Foss |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 October 1951 |
| Political party | Labour |
Richard John Barker (born 27 October 1951) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party, and was a middle-ranking Cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand.
Barker was born in the town of Greymouth, on New Zealand's West Coast. He attended Greymouth High School and then the University of Otago. After working as a shop assistant, bartender, storeworker, farmhand, driver, factory worker, and quarrier, he became involved in the trade unions, primarily those relating to the service sector. He eventually became National Secretary of the Service Workers' Union.
Barker became a member of the Labour Party in 1973, and served for a time as the Industrial Representative on the party's National Council. In the 1993 elections, he successfully stood as the Labour Party candidate for the Hastings electorate, winning a seat that was previously held by the National Party. 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.
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