It’s 50 years this weekend since Warren Cooper was first elected to Parliament.
In the stormy election campaign of 1975, the then 42-year-old defeated Labour MP Ian Quigley to become the then-Otago Central seat’s National MP — at the same time as his party, headed by the combative Rob Muldoon, overwhelmed the Labour government in a landslide.
Cooper then stepped down from the Queenstown mayoral role he’d had since 1968, and he, his wife Lorraine and their five kids moved to Mosgiel, near Dunedin, to be closer to the heart of the electorate.
Warren had grown up in Dunedin, even attending, at about 11, an election meeting held by Labour MP Fred Jones where he was asked to say "hello" to everyone.
By then he’d already decided he’d leave school at 15 and become a National MP — an ambition which later crystallised when visiting Parliament.
He’d become a fervent private enterpriser while visiting stores owned by his father Bill and selling lollies on commission in his cinema.
In ’56 he joined his dad in Queenstown where he’d bought McBride’s Hotel — renamed, after him, Wicked Willies.
Warren became a signwriting and painting contractor and got on to the then-borough council in ’65.
As mayor, he had his first dealings with then-Finance Minister Muldoon, convincing him to allow council to sell Queenstown Hill commonage land to fund water/sewerage schemes.
After his first term as an MP, he became Minister of Tourism and moved his family to Wellington.
"I recall sitting in Cabinet, last in the pecking order, and Rob Muldoon commented, ‘Mr Cooper, you’ve been in this Cabinet for one month and you’ve said more in this time than I said in my first three years’.
"It was an observation made without rancour, nor did the Prime Minister show any sign of annoyance when I presented my opinion on the following item."
Showing his political acumen, Warren — nicknamed ‘one-coat Cooper’ by Opposition MPs — persuaded his government to approve the controversial Clyde high dam proposal.
Despite Muldoon’s often-tarnished reputation, "I found he was on the ball, doing the things that had to be done, he certainly didn’t have any nastiness and he had a good sense of humour".
Warren recalls he and Lorraine dining with the PM when he learned she was Australian — "oh well, I suppose they are people", he commented.
In ’84, Muldoon surprised everyone, including Warren, by making him Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade Minister — "people were jumping off roofs".
Muldoon biographer Barry Gustafson says he saw Warren as someone with street smarts who "wouldn’t get carried away with gilt and chandeliers".
The role saw Warren and Lorraine travel the world extensively, meeting the likes of the Pope and United States Secretary of State George Shultz and, in some countries, giving security personnel the difficult job of keeping up with him when he went jogging.
Despite the role’s demands, Warren — whose family had a stint in Alexandra before returning to Queenstown — still attended to a large electorate.
Friend Sir John Davies says "it was more remote in those days and there weren’t the flights into Queenstown".
Ironically, as Warren noted, Labour, after overthrowing National in ’84, "did the type of policy switches I had advocated without success in the early ’80s".
After National regained power in 1990, he became Minister of Defence.
Former Labour leader David Lange quipped: "No one invaded New Zealand while Warren was Minister of Defence."
In ’95, Warren surprised many by also running, successfully again, for the Queenstown mayoralty, prompting PM Jim Bolger to remove him from Cabinet.
Lorraine: "Warren stated he could do both with his eyes shut, but obviously Jim Bolger didn’t think so."
He subsequently stood down at the ’96 election after 21 colourful years as MP, then carried on as mayor till 2001.
He’s said he’s glad he resigned ahead of the first MMP election as he felt the system encouraged the tail to wag the dog.
Looking back, "I achieved an ambition, I wouldn’t change it at all".
What had served him was "a reasonable amount of straight talking, common sense and pragmatism".
"I’ve only ever been interested in doing things if I felt they could be done better."
Friend Jim Burns praised his "unfailing good humour, his sense of the bizarre, his fair-mindedness, his total lack of personal malice and his huge reservoir of common sense and fair play".
And Warren always credited Lorraine for much of his success: "Many have said, ‘he must be a funny bugger, that Warren Cooper, but I suppose we could vote for him because she seems to think he’s alright’."
‘Never seen him’
Having flown from Singapore to Canberra with US Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel for an Asean conference, Warren had left for a jog.
Sweaty on returning to their hotel, he snuck in by the service lift only to be met by Stoessel’s security official.
Lorraine: "He marched Warren down to our room and knocked on the door, I answered it and there was this heavy standing there and Warren behind him.
"He said to me, ‘this man claims to be your husband’.
"I just looked at him and grinned and said ‘I’ve never seen him before in my life’."
