Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition): The National Opposition joins with the Government in paying tribute to Mike Moore New Zealand's 34th Prime Minister and the 11th leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. On 2 February 2020 New Zealand lost not only one of its staunchest advocates for free trade and open markets across the world but someone who spent his entire life courageously fighting for what he believed in. The tenure of our 34th Prime Minister may have been one of the shortest but his legacy as a PM and more than that as a great parliamentarian and New Zealander is secure. He was in every sense of the term a great New Zealander. One of the things Mike said in one of his interviews—on I think The 9th Floor interview on RNZ—that stuck with me was The greatest betrayal we can make of our people is to not care." No one could say Mike didn't care and courageously so about the people that he served. It was caring for people dedicating his life to public service and sticking to his values which served him so well for his 24 years of parliamentary service. Mike embodied some of the best traditions of New Zealand: looking out for Kiwi battlers backing each other to succeed recognising that not everyone is born into wealth and that sometimes they need a hand up. Much of Mike's legacy is around trade free trade and promoting New Zealand to the world and I'll come to his tenure at the World Trade Organization in a moment. But his early thinking on the benefits of free trade certainly paved the way for New Zealand's entry into the world of free trade. When the fourth National Government signed up to Closer Economic Relations with Australia it was Mike who first saw on the Labour side how free trade and being open to the world could benefit the working class or as he put it how the workers could get their hands on the loot. He knew that the benefits of selling our products to the world without enormous tariffs meant New Zealand would be a richer country for it and that everyone could share in the benefits of a growing economy. He led new thinking in the Labour Party that saw free trade as an opportunity for advancing the New Zealand brand and cause and there are many people who got opportunities and financial certainty that are grateful for it. Mike's time as a Prime Minister was only 60 days long but he is credited by many for stopping a wipe-out of the Labour Party in the 1990 general election. He led the Labour Party for another three years and almost returned them to Government in the 1993 general election. I'm sure Jim Bolger was delighted not to have to face him again. His leadership at the World Trade Organization (WTO) was short but significant. He worked to spread free trade to the far-flung reaches of our world because he saw the potential in new markets and new opportunities for many different people like it had done for us. His tenure in the United States as our ambassador ended when he suffered ill health and he returned to New Zealand to enjoy the remaining years of his life. No doubt everyone would agree with me that it was a life well lived or as Chris Trotter said "not bad for a former printer and freezing-worker!" To his wife Yvonne to his family and to his friends there is no doubt Mike will have left a hole in your family as well as New Zealand. Jane Clifton noted Mike Moore was like the opposite of L & P: "world-famous just not in New Zealand." As I've said Mike never lacked courage and was a great parliamentarian but sometimes he could become so voluble that it was hard to work out what precisely he was arguing. Some of his former colleagues have told me of the lengthy and not always intelligible memos he would send to them when he was about to depart overseas as Minister for overseas trade and many a reporter was left scratching his or her head after a Moore speech trying to divine the meaning. The robustness of parliamentary debate certainly diminished when one of the House's more colourful figures—dare I say it likeable rogues—departed to the WTO in 1999. He will be remembered for his belief in free trade when others in his party did not. He will be remembered for serving our country in the highest of international roles and putting our country on the map. He will be remembered for his belief in the potential of every New Zealander. He will be remembered as a great New Zealander who loved his country who dedicated his life to public service and who spent his 71 years working to make New Zealand a better place."