Electoral history and roles

Worth entered Parliament when he successfully stood as the National Party's candidate for the Auckland electorate of Epsom in the 1999 election, winning with a majority of 1,908. National did not win the election overall and so Worth became an Opposition MP. He was re-elected in the 2002 election with an increased majority of 5,619. In his first six years in Parliament, Worth served on the Regulations Review committee and Law and Order committee, and had appointments as the National Party spokesperson for defence, veterans' affairs and justice.^[2]

Worth lost his electorate seat in the 2005 election to the ACT New Zealand leader Rodney Hide.^[10] Hide had put out a tactical voting message calling on National voters to support him in order to elect a coalition partner for National;^[11] without winning Epsom, ACT was unlikely to win another electorate seat or to get five percent of the party vote, so would not enter Parliament. National and Worth continued to fight for the seat,^[12][13] but Worth lost by more than 3,000 votes.^[10] Worth was however elected as a list MP, and National's party vote in Epsom was the highest of any electorate in the country in that election.^[14] When John Key became National Party leader in November 2006, Worth was reassigned to the economic development portfolio.

At the 2008 election, Worth lost Epsom again, this time by nearly 13,000 votes,^[15] but was re-elected on the party list. National's highest party vote was again in Epsom.^[16] National also won the election overall. Worth became Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Land Information, Minister Responsible for Archives New Zealand, Minister Responsible for the National Library and Associate Minister of Justice.^[17][18] Worth was reportedly a contender for Speaker of the House, with the support of the previous speaker Jonathan Hunt,^[19] but Lockwood Smith was selected instead.

Policies and actions

Worth's maiden speech in February 2000 focused on trade, economics and Asia.^[20]

In 2002 he faced questions from his party for sightseeing in Cairo instead of attending a Maori Battalion service during an official trip to Egypt.^[21]

In 2005 he proposed the creation of a National Day to replace Waitangi Day. He proposed 24 May, the day that the New Zealand colony was granted a representative constitution by the British Parliament.^[22]

Worth was a member of the Select Committee hearing submissions about the Civil Union Bill. He was a strong opponent of the bill, which allowed legal recognition of same-sex couples though a second class of relationships besides marriage. Worth was concerned that civil unions were in effect marriages, and he described the government as "anti-family" and said that "marriage is a valuable institution in civil society and it is important that its value is not degraded or diminished by Act of Parliament." Worth said that civil unions would discriminate against non-sexual relationships, and proposed an amendment to the bill which would allow any two people, including family members and friends, to register a civil relationship that established certain rights such as right to visit in hospital or make medical decisions. Worth reported that this amendment had about one-third of the votes in the Committee stage and was not included into the bill.^{[23][24][25][26]} Ultimately the bill was passed and became the Civil Union Act 2004.^[27]

In 2007 Worth proposed a private members bill to address miscarriages of justice. However, the Ministry of Justice recommended to the Labour Government that they not adopt it. The Deputy Prime Minister of the time, Michael Cullen, wrote to Worth about his bill saying it was too broad and might have unwarranted constitutional and fiscal consequences, that the Government would not support it.^[28][29]

As Minister for Land Information, Worth introduced the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill in 2008. This bill sought to correct historic oversights, errors or omissions relating to land status. It consisted of a number of specific reclassifications of land.^[30] The bill was ultimately enacted in 2015,^[31] after Worth had left Parliament.

In March 2009 he was reprimanded by his leader John Key for failing to mention that he was connected to a company that stood to gain from official visit to India. During the trip Worth both spoke on behalf of the Government and also arranged personal business deals. Worth did not consider there to be any conflict of interest. He later disengaged from his Indian business interests and stepped down as chair of the New Zealand India Trade Group.^{[32][33][34][35]}

Resignation

On 3 June 2009 Prime Minister John Key issued a press release announcing Richard Worth had resigned as a Minister. The press release stated that Worth had "advised me of some private matters in respect of which he felt it appropriate that he should resign as a Minister", and that Key would make no further comment about these matters.^[36]

The same day, the New Zealand Police issued a statement saying an allegation had been made against a sitting MP and that they were beginning a preliminary investigation.^[37] Key confirmed that Worth was the subject of a police investigation. Key would not say if the matter reported to police was the reason for the resignation, saying instead that Worth's conduct "[did] not befit a minister and I will not have him in my Cabinet,'' and had Worth not resigned he would have been sacked.^[38] The woman who laid the police complaint was never identified, with it only being revealed that she was a Korean businesswoman.^[39]

Key also stated that some weeks prior he had received a separate allegation that Richard Worth had "[made] a nuisance of himself towards women", which Key investigated and had received assurances that those allegations were not correct.^[40] This other accusation was presented to Key by then-leader of the Opposition, Phil Goff.^[40][41] The woman behind this allegation was revealed to be Neelam Choudary, an active member of the New Zealand Labour Party. According to Choudary, Worth first contacted her on 26 November 2008, and altogether, forty texts and sixty telephone calls ensued, continuing until 23 February 2009. Choudary, an ethnic Indian, alleged that she was offered a job as an ethnic affairs advisor or board member in return for romantic favours. She also alleged that inappropriate and vulgar telephone calls included asking her to buy transparent garments, and that his conduct was unacceptable and unwanted.^[42] Neelam Choudary herself faced scrutiny when it was later revealed that her husband, Kumar Akkineni Choudary, had been convicted the year before for his role in an immigration scam.^[43]

Worth declared that he was innocent of any crime.^[44] Prime Minister Key reiterated that there was no future for Worth within his Cabinet, and warned that suspension or expulsion from the National caucus was still a prospect. Worth resigned from Parliament on 12 June 2009 (effective 16 June 2009),^[45][46] citing that his role as a Member of Parliament was compromised due to "the avalanche of rumour and innuendo," and he wished to seek a new direction in international trade.^[47] After Worth's parliamentary resignation, Cam Calder took his place as the next eligible person on the current New Zealand National Party list.^[48]

In early July 2009 it was reported that the woman who made the original allegation to police had withdrawn her complaint and police dropped the matter.^[49][50] In November 2009, police announced that Worth would not face charges.^[51] As of July 2009, Choudary had not made the text exchanges public,^[52] though she sent copies of 34 texts from Worth, and her phone logs, to Key.^[43] Labour did not pursue the matter further.^[52] It was never publicly announced what caused Key to lose confidence in Worth and require his resignation.^[52]