Born in North Canterbury in 1932, Derek Quigley gained a scholarship for young farmers from the Meat and Wool Boards to study farming in Britain and the United States, before completing a law degree while farming and practising as a lawyer in Christchurch. He entered Parliament as National MP for Rangiora in 1975, and was a Cabinet minister in the Muldoon National government, an advisor to the Lange/Douglas Labour government, and founder with Roger Douglas of the ACT Party. After a further term in Parliament in 1996–99, he has worked as a consultant, and as a visiting fellow at ANU’s Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, and now lives in Madrid. He is the author of Challenging the Status Quo: A Political Memoir (2024).
