Mahuta Nanaia: Obituaries — Hon Parekura HoromiaText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Obituaries — Hon Parekura Horomia[Sitting date: 07 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9623. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato): Kua rehu te rā ki tōna rua ka tau ake anō te hinapōuri ki runga i te motu. Parekura o te tini Parekura o te mano Parekura o te marea kua parekuratia te motu i tō ngaronga. Haere e Pare kia kata pai ngā tūpuna i te pō. Parekura nāu i rata ngā wharekai nāu i whakahoahoa ngā tāngata ahakoa ko wai ahakoa nō whea.Ka tika te haere mai o ngā iwi tinitini ki runga o Hauiti ki runga o Te Tai Rāwhiti mōu te take. Ko tēnei rangi ka muia te tini ki roto i tō wāhi mahi te Whare Pāremata mōu tonu te take. Haere e hoa ki te urunga tē taka ki te moenga tē whakaarahia te pō ki a koe. E te hoa e te rangatira e moe haere haere atu rā.[The sun has disappeared into its chasms and darkness settles once more upon the country. Parekura of the very many the thousands the public the nation is in a calamity at your loss. Depart Pare so that the ancestors in the void will be humouredwell. Parekura you made the dining halls take a shine to you; the people regardless of who they were and where they were from befriended you.It is fitting indeed that a multitude of tribes descended upon Hauiti and the East Coast. You were responsible for that. Today your workplace Parliament House is swarming with the multitude. You caused that. Depart friend to the place where the pillow does not fall where one cannot be roused from the bed. The void is yours. To the colleague and leader sleep depart farewell.]I offer my condolences to the whānau pani the people of Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti the people of Te Tai Rāwhiti of Ngāti Kahungunu and all the constituents of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. Parekura was a regular presence amongst the people of Waikato. He had a close and special affinity with the late Dame Te Ata and my late father extending to his close relationship with Tuheitia. His kin connections to the Kīngitanga were well known and there was always a place to stay or kai on the table should he ever drop in and he dropped in often. I started making cups of tea for Parekura when I was 15. It never stopped! I kind of closed my eyes as people were talking today thinking that if I could have visualised Parekura sitting on that great paepae in heaven what he would be looking like. He would have a big broad smile with his eyes closed because he was grinning from ear to ear and he would be saying: “Quick quick get up. They’re making me a saint. Get up and say something.” That is kind of how he was. He could always inject the right amount of humour into an occasion at the right time for the right reason. People loved Parekura for who he was.Parekura consolidated the relationships that he had no matter where he worked. His time leading the Community Employment Group gave him godlike qualities. People who worked for and with him and those who benefited from the Community Employment Group grants would go out of their way to support Parekura and I saw that mostly during campaign time on the campaign trail. He always seemed to know and keep tabs on the people who worked for them and he knew that no matter where they sat on the political spectrum he always had one up on them. He would say to us: “Don’t worry about such and such. They used to work for me.”—eh Hone? He always referred to Hone Harawira when he made those types of comments.Parekura had very much a grassroots personality. He enjoyed rugby as people have mentioned. He loved the endeavours of young people. He supported the Māori Women’s Welfare League in all manner of ways. In fact he was godlike like Winston is to the Māori Women’s Welfare League—when he walks through the sea of women they part. He always had an ear to the ground when it came to the New Zealand Māori Council. I can remember just recently when te kaunihera had a Māori hui in Rotorua and the New Zealand Māori Council was choosing its chairs—it was supposed to be chairs; then it ended up being co-chairs—Parekura said to our hui: “I’ve got to go. I’ve got to find out what they’re doing and I’ve got to make sure they select the right person.” Well when he came back and said that it had selected co-chairs we thought: “Oh I wonder whether he had any influence over that one.”But he regularly attended all our key events in Māoridom—koroneihana Rātana Waitangi—and people knew him for the person he was outside Parliament and he never changed on coming into Parliament. You see Parekura had small-town values which he never lost when he moved to the big city lights. He understood that the heartbeat of Māori communities were the women—are the women. He was raised by his nannies and aunties and he often often talked about them and remembered them fondly. He was always surrounded by the aunties the cuzzies and the ladies when he campaigned throughout his rohe. He knew that getting on the wrong side of them was a mistake yet he had a knack of getting all his aunties and his cousins and the ladies running around after him. It seemed effortless. They would do whatever he asked.I experienced Parekura’s support throughout our time in Parliament as a friend and as a colleague and I appreciated that. Parekura lived by two very simple tikanga: manaakitanga—to care for people—and kanohi kitea—to be visible; to be present. He did a lot of his electorate work as many of you know by attending hui going to birthdays and tangi and attending the regular events on the Māori calendar. His style of politics could be best termed as old-school—always willing to have a good bust-up without making too many enemies along the way always doing the business and never appearing too tired when it came to his people. He gave so much of himself.Parekura was no good with technology. I suspect he moved to the iPhone only because his moko—“Big Moko”—was a gun on the gadgets and he always told me that. I have to admit that face-to-face conversations with Parekura were often very long and if I had a really important question and I needed a simple yes or no answer I would just text him. I kind of got some really good text responses to me but they were never more than two or three words and I liked that.Parekura had a quick temper and if he got all worked up he would thump the table his eyes would bulge and the sentences got shorter and shorter. In fact he had a number of two-word sentences—you fill in the gaps. You kind of got the feeling that this was his rugby character and you had better step back because he would explode. We never heard too many stories about how explosive Pare was on the rugby pitch but we were told—you know that cricket patch that goes up and down the rugby pitch? That was where he was supposed to be the gun on that little cricket pitch. He made a good little number there. And Tau is right. I suspect Parekura gave it as much as he got it. He was no good at fund-raising. I remember at a Labour Party fund-raiser we got him to auction some wine and he sold a $30 bottle of wine to an auntie for $2 and after that bottle we said: “You’re sacked. We’ll bring in someone else to auction this wine off.”No story about Parekura would be complete without mentioning his many drivers and there were many. Whanaunga staff mates ministerial drivers—every one of those people will have a story. Parekura was shocking. I went in the car with him only once and I never ever went again unless he promised me that he was not driving. But you got value out of every kilometre that he travelled. He would always know where the hui was where the tangi was where a birthday was. Just calling in was enough and you would see the delight of his people when he just called in unannounced when they would know that they were special enough for him to call in. I really admired that about him. He never had too short a time to have a cup of tea. The only problem was with every cup of tea came the cakes and the sausage rolls and all of that. So you know people made comments about his size and all of that but it was really indicative of the love that his people showed for him. Let it be a timely lesson for us all that love can be shown with a salad and a carrot stick and maybe a gluten-free something—watch this space. As I said some of the best stories will remain with the many people who drove him around and saw the extent of the mahi he really did. He was always good for a yarn on those long trips and members of our caucus will miss him for that.There were several times that I would walk into the office and he would be having a conversation with his son Wal inquiring about his farm a busted gate sending some meat for a tangi somewhere down the line paying for this and that. Wal always seemed to have the con on whatever Parekura did or wanted to do. Desmond had “Big Moko” in Auckland. Parekura was proud of Des’ achievements and the fact that moko played softball and was a gun on the gadgets. We would pick up and drop off Parekura from Des’ place when he had to go to Auckland. Parekura glowed when he talked about his two moko. To them he was just Papa and that is the way he liked it. Tūrei—well I suspect he always made Parekura feel like a father. He was always forever worrying about Tūrei. If it was not one thing it was another. But it did not matter to Pare. He wasimmensely proud of each and every one of his sons and true to form so as not to boast he never ever cooked his affection for his sons from what I saw. He simply loved them for who they were.Parekura supported many things during his time as Minister and much mention has been made of that but we should say it again and again because this is where the heartbeat of Māoridom is and Parekura understood it—Te Matatini waka ama Māori wardens Māori Television Māori radio Māori tourism Treaty settlements the wānanga settlement and a Māori curriculum in education. He always focused on what was good for Māori. Shivers if we applied a rugby analogy to it he always played the ball not the man.He was a steady hand for the Māori affairs portfolio but I am sure he caused a bit of a flurry now and then—in fact I am absolutely positive. I can remember going to a secondary school national kapa haka event and he was staggered by the numbers of young people turning out to that event to show their prowess on the stage. He asked his Te Puni Kōkiri official: “How much have we given to this event?”. When he was told the minimum figure by his official he wrote something on the piece of paper and he gave it to me just as I was going up to thank everyone on behalf of the Government at the time. He told me to tell everybody that this will go towards helping pay for the buses for the next nationals. Anyway I get up and I make the announcement on behalf of the Minister of Māori Affairs that a sum had been made for every kapa haka group coming to the nationals and there was a loud applause and roar. I walked back down and the Te Puni Kōkiri regional officer was rubbing her head in despair. I said: “What’s wrong? Your Minister just OK’d it.” She said: “Yeah that’s one thing. But head office will tell me I’ve got to find the savings within my regional budget because he made the announcement in my area.” Such was the man. He really had a sense of what was needed at the right time.Parekura was a public figure but he was a very private man. He never let on to his colleagues the extent of any illness that had afflicted him. He would try very hard to meet his regular calendar of commitments but in the last year it became evident that he had slowed right down. Parekura was a working-class politician with a grassroots sense of gravitas. He joined the Keep Our Assets hīkoi. He marched for port workers. He stood side by side on the picket line with meat workers. He never lost sight of the real issues that affected real people—jobs kai for the kids a warm home and looking after the old battlers who fought for our proud nation. Parekura exemplified all the values that he lived by. During his time as an MP and a Minister he was served by some very loyal staff who respected his passion and laughed around him got frustrated with him and were dedicated to his cause of Māori development. Although we would have preferred to hear a valedictory speech from Parekura sadly that is not to be.Parekura had a deep spiritual side. He would always talk about all these different spiritualities as he was growing up. But you can count on this certainly for the members of the Māori caucus: if a karakia needed to be said because we did not know our way through or we did not know what was happening or something needed to be corrected Parekura would always follow his Māori heart and confirm the spirituality within him. I respect him for that.Today Parliament has an opportunity to farewell a friend colleague loyal servant of his people and faithful member of the Labour Party. Right now I just want to recognise Joe who in his electorate was Parekura’s eyes his ears and his hands. He would mobilise people throughout his electorate if he needed them to be somewhere to support him. Joe you have not stopped working for him right to this current day. Your service I think has made a big difference to the things that Parekura did in his time. He will be remembered for the impression he left and for the laughs along the way. We rememberhim fondly. Nō reira e moe Parekura. Nō reira kia tau ki a tātou katoa te atawhai o tō tātou Ariki a Ihu Karaiti te aroha o Te Atua me te whiwhingatahitanga ki Te Wairua Tapu ake ake ake āmine.[And so rest Parekura. Let the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the ability to access the Holy Spirit be with us all for ever and ever amen.]Motion agreed to.WaiataKaranga