Hon Richard Prebble CBE Retires

Now it's not much of a secret that I am a fan of Prebs - It's true I worked for him and have always said it is the best job I ever had. After his speech he found me having a drink in the ACT Caucus room and said that the line from his speech - "I am very grateful to my staff" - was especially for me. He then went to every other staffer and ex-staffer and said the same thing.

I had known most of the stories that were in his speech today (and many that were not - wait for the book) and my favourite passage is this:

'I would occasionally receive calls from people who lived in Robert Muldoon’s Tamaki electorate. For 18 years we shared a boundary. When he got one of my constituents, he would say, “You are Richard Prebble’s constituent, I know he is a wild young man but he is a good electorate MP. Here is his home number, he wont mind you ringing. He is a bit of a night owl, ring him after 10pm and say I told you too.”

When his constituents rang me I would say, “Parliamentary protocol means you must approach your local MP. Muldoon is good to his constituents. Here is his confidential home number. He gets up very early; best ring him before 6am and say I told you to ring.” I would then add no matter how impossible the problem. “Sir Robert is Prime Minister, he can easily fix your problem.”

We did that to each other for 18 years.

Sir Robert even fixed their problems. Like the constituent who had been ringing us all to say that the SIS were beaming gamma rays at his head. Muldoon just said. "I am the Minister in charge of the SIS. Why didn’t you ring me earlier? I will have it stopped today."'