Warren Wilfred Freer was a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party. He represented the Mount Albert electorate from 1947 to.
Early life
Freer was born in 1920. His parents were Charles and May Freer. Both lived in Waihi during the Waihi miners' strike in 1913 and had to leave the town. They married in 1914 in Remuera. He went to Royal OakPrimary School in Auckland. During the early days of the Great Depression he was embarrassed to be the only one of his class not bare-footed, so used to take off his shoes and socks on the way to school and replace them before getting home. Michael Joseph Savage frequently went to the Freer home for Sunday roasts, and on his thirteenth birthday gave Warren a copy of Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward, which he "devoured and cherished". As a school boy at Auckland Grammar School, Warren Freer suffered a spinal injury, and he subsequently did not join the war. He initially worked as a shop assistant in "Milne and Choice" a large Queen Street department store, but moved to journalism.
Member of Parliament
Freer stood unsuccessfully in the for the "hopeless" electorate. He was then asked to stand for the electorate in a 1947 by-election, which he won. Freer was only 26 when he entered Parliament following the death of Arthur Richards, and was relatively unknown to Labour executive members, but local supporter Dick Barter convinced Peter Fraser that his work in Eden was adequate apprenticeship. Freer represented the Mount Albert electorate for 34 years. He chose not to seek re-election at the, and was succeeded by Helen Clark. In 1955 he was the first Western politician to visit China, against the wishes of Labour leader Walter Nash, but with the encouragement of Prime MinisterSidney Holland. In March 1959 Freer was quoted in the tabloid newspaperNew Zealand Truth as having stated "See Phil, and Phil will fix it" to Henry Judd, an émigré importer, insinuating Freer was informing Judd that the Minister of Industries and CommercePhil Holloway could grant him an ease-of-passage remedy for controlled imports. The incident became a libel case in which Holloway was awarded in damages and a further in costs. Freer, alongside Bill Fox and Mick Moohan, was one of the few senior Labour MPs who helped propel Norman Kirk to Labour's leadership by ensuring he had the numbers to successfully challenge Nordmeyer in 1965. From then on he became a close confidant of Kirk. As a reward he was promoted to the frontbench as Shadow Minister of Industries and Commerce and Shadow Minister of Trade. He was a cabinet minister in the Third Labour Government of 1972–1975, holding the portfolios of Trade and Industry and Minister of Energy Resources. He was ranked third in cabinet and served as acting Prime Minister three times, and was "appalled" by the amount of paper Kirk was given to read, with "international secrets" that he could read in that week's Time. On the first occasion, Kirk congratulated him that there were no industrial disputes and that he had not gone to war against anyone. He stood as a candidate for the deputy leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1974 after Kirk's death only to prevent Arthur Faulkner winning on the first ballot, hoping that either Bob Tizard or Colin Moyle would win the subsequent ballot. He lost on the third ballot. Initially he had no intention of standing, and preferred Tizard.
Freer's first wife died in 2003; they had been married for 62 years. His second marriage was to Joyce. Freer died on 29 March 2013 after a long illness. He is survived by his two sons from his first marriage, and by his second wife.
