| Richard Walls | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | QSO JP |
| Order1: | 52nd |
| Office1: | Mayor of Dunedin |
| Term Start1: | 14 October 1989 |
| Term End1: | 14 October 1995 |
| Predecessor1: | Cliff Skeggs |
| Successor1: | Sukhi Turner |
| Constituency Mp2: | Dunedin North |
| Parliament2: | New Zealand |
| Term Start2: | 29 November 1975 |
| Term End2: | 25 November 1978 |
| Predecessor2: | Ethel McMillan |
| Successor2: | Stan Rodger |
| Birth Name: | Richard Francis Walls |
| Birth Date: | 9 October 1937 |
| Birth Place: | Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Death Place: | Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Party: | National |
| Spouse: | June Walls |
| Children: | 3 |
Richard Francis Walls (9 October 1937 – 30 October 2011) was a New Zealand politician and businessman.
Walls was a Member of Parliament for Dunedin North from 1975 to 1978.[1] A member of the National Party, he won the normally safe Labour seat as part of Robert Muldoon's landslide victory of 1975. He was the first National MP to represent a significant portion of Dunedin, a long-standing Labour stronghold, in 21 years. Walls was defeated after only one term by Labour's Stan Rodger; to date, he is the last National MP to represent Dunedin.
Following his defeat, Walls attempted to re-enter parliament by seeking the National nomination for the Auckland seat of in a 1980 by-election. He made the initial five person shortlist, but after being hospitalised suddenly, he was too ill to travel to Auckland for the selection meeting.[2] [3]
Walls was first elected onto Dunedin City Council in 1980.[4] Prior to that he served on the St. Kilda Borough Council (1962–1965) and on the Otago Harbour Board (1965–1974; Chairman 1971–1973). He was Mayor of Dunedin for two terms from 1989 to 1995, when he was defeated by Sukhi Turner.[4] He was re-elected to the Dunedin City Council as a councillor in 1998. He remained a city councillor until 2010 and was chair of the Finance and Strategy Committee from 2007 to 2010.[5] [6] In the 2010 Dunedin local elections, he stood in the Central ward, but was unsuccessful.[7]
In 2010 Walls was chairman of Dunedin International Airport Limited; a fellow of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand (FInstD) and a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management (FNZIM). He was a justice of the peace and was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours.[8]
He died suddenly in his Dunedin home on 30 October 2011 at the age of 74, and is survived by his wife June and three children.[9]