Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): I hadn't intended to speak today but I felt given that I was on the other side of a lot of what Ron Mark was talking about I should make a few comments. Mike Moore was the MP for Christchurch North for 18 years and I want to put on record that he was so highly respected by the Christchurch community in the role that he took. I was for six of those years the National Party's electorate chairman in Christchurch North. We were constantly aware that we were opposing a man who was deeply revered and respected by the citizens of that particular electorate. I didn't come to know him particularly well but when I came into Parliament in 1996 he was more than generous in giving advice about how one should conduct oneself in the parliamentary environment and he was of course—as we have heard said so often today—a great parliamentarian. I do recall though that for some reason and I'm not quite sure why the Hon Dr Wayne Mapp and I were at a luncheon held in Christchurch—probably not unusual that I was at a luncheon I suppose—by a well-known American businessman in the city. He was entertaining a group of senators who'd come out in late 1998 or it might have been early 1999 on their way through to Australia and on to Thailand who were essentially trying to get a bit of a steer on the World Trade Organization job and who might be there given that the two Supachai and Mike were the preferred candidates. We were invited after these senators had a discussion on the tennis court of Mr Hagaman to come and speak to them so we wandered out there. They were doing this because they considered that was the most secure place for them to have a discussion which is a bit odd these days. They asked us what we knew of Mike Moore and what we thought of him. We were both I have to say quite effusive about his commitment to world trade to the liberalisation of trade and as he understood the benefits of it. So they told us they were going to report back to—I think it was Charlene Barshefsky—the United States trade representative at the time. Wayne Mapp in his own inimitable way said Why don't you guys just cut it short and split the job?" Now I don't know whether that's why they did it. I don't want to attribute that to Wayne—it's a very significant achievement—but when in fact they did do that I do think it's a bit of shame that Mike didn't end up taking the second part of that job. I think he'd have been there a lot longer and I think a lot of the momentum that he created in those three years would have made a huge difference to where the world sits today on these matters. I also as Minister of Defence was hosted by Mike in Washington. I've got to say his access to their system was quite extraordinary. So all the facets of his personality—the genial approach that he took to people the love that he always exhibited of being in the company of people who wanted to discuss ideas—was on display on those couple of days. We actually also got to see the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Now I'm not sure whether it was anything Mike said but that afternoon Chuck was dismissed from his job by President Obama. But none the less the access was quite extraordinary. We also enjoyed that evening quite an extraordinary dinner that Mike put on. One of the guests was the Hon Kim Beazley from Australia. It will be one occasion that I'll remember for the rest of my life because of the breadth of the conversation the forward-thinking of that conversation and the ability that Mike Moore seemed to have to see a couple of steps ahead of where everything else was. It took some deciphering but you knew it was there. I am somewhat sorry though that it was a few weeks later that he became quite ill. At the end of the dinner at around 9 o'clock he sort of rounded everyone up and said "Well Minister you've got a big day tomorrow you need to move on." and I took a slight risk and said to him "Oh hang on a minute Ambassador. Whatever happened to fine old MFAT tradition of port and cigars after the dinner?" He leapt out of his chair—remember this was a man who was not overly well then and he had trouble with his feet—and procured the most rubbishy bunch of cigars I've ever seen but some of the finest port you could ever get. We sat outside in December until after 2 in the morning with the discussion continuing—quite an extraordinary occasion. But I also want to say particularly to Yvonne Moore who was also highly regarded by the people in Christchurch that their enduring partnership no doubt allowed Mike to have the career that he was able to follow. To her our deepest sympathies and condolences as she goes about the rest of her life without her life partner Mike Moore."