Warren Cooper

The Honourable Warren Cooper CNZM JP
Warren Cooper as Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a meeting with Caspar Weinberger at the Pentagon in 1983
31st Minister of Defence
In office 2 November 1990 – 1 March 1996
Prime Minister	Jim Bolger
Preceded by	Peter Tapsell
Succeeded by	Paul East
Personal details
Born	(1933-02-21) 21 February 1933 (age 83)
Political party	National

Warren Ernest Cooper, CNZM, JP (born 21 February 1933), is a former New Zealand politician. He was a National Party MP from 1975 to 1996, holding cabinet positions including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence. Cooper also twice served as Mayor of Queenstown, from 1968 to 1975 and 1995 to 2001.

Cooper was born in Dunedin in 1933. He received his education at Musselborough School and King's High School. He later moved to Queenstown. He worked as a retailer, a painting, decorating and signwriting contractor, and a motel manager, and also became involved in local politics.

He was first elected to Parliament in the 1975 elections as MP for Otago Central, defeating the newly elected Ian Quigley of the Labour Party. In the 1978 election, he successfully contested the replacement electorate Otago.

Just after the 1978 election, his ministerial career started. He was Minister of Tourism (1978–1981), Minister of Regional Development (1978–1981), Postmaster-General (1980–1981), and Minister of Broadcasting (1981). When Brian Talboys retired from Parliament in 1981, Cooper was appointed to replace him as Minister of Foreign Affairs; he held this position until the government of Rob Muldoon was defeated in 1984. Later, in the government of Jim Bolger, Cooper served as Minister of Defence. Cooper remained in Parliament until the 1996 election, when he stepped aside in favour of Gavan Herlihy.