Peters Winston: Obituaries — Hon Parekura HoromiaText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Obituaries — Hon Parekura Horomia[Sitting date: 07 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9595. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): E ngā reo e ngā mana e ngā waka e ngā pū kōrero o ngā hau e whā e rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[To the voices authorities mediums orators of the four winds and to the leaders of a hundredfold salutations greetings and acknowledgments to us all.]This is a time of mourning yet also a time of celebration of Parekura Horomia’s life and work. Parekura as we all know was the subject of much criticism—mostly unjustified—which in time with perseverance and great humour he turned into respect throughout this country not perhaps in some sectors but where it mattered and particularly in this Parliament. He was loyal to his family and to his people and to his country and he had values that reflected his background and his childhood. In other words Parekura knew what poverty and hard times looked like smelt like and felt like and he never ever forgot that background in his views on policies in this Parliament. He never did put aside the interests of his people and he was no stranger to hard manual work and sacrifice and it may astonish some people here to know that he played about 100 games of rugby for the East Coast.He had learnt a trade he had worked for the Department of Labour and he was a highly successful manager of work schemes on the East Coast in Poverty Bay and in the Hawke’s Bay. Parekura was a former Māori warden in an organisation that has been seriously revived in the last few years and he was a great contributor to that revival. He was on the Māori Council executive locally and a chairperson of the Ngati Porou Te Kōhanga Reo Trust Training Board. Parekura had a very very full life.Politics for the committed is a tough business and there is no doubt that it affected Parekura’s health. Now he has gone. He has had no time for a well-earned retirement no time just for himself and above all no time to spend with his three sons and his wider family any more. One hopes that people in this country sometimes reflect uponthat when they are talking about parliamentary pensions because Parekura will not get to see even one day of it. On these occasions it is usual for all manner of people to rise to their feet and be laudatory and to praise someone like this but on this particular occasion we know that our words have a particular and special significance. It is sad to say that maybe we are all guilty of not sending Parekura home earlier and to leave him to keep on working at a time when maybe his health could have been in recovery. That is also something for people to reflect upon and when they do I hope that they are unstinting in their gratitude for the time and effort he put into what was for him at the beginning a difficult political career but which in the end he was seriously triumphant in fulfilling.At the end of the day we are terribly sad to see him go and very sad not to have the son of Ngati Porou here with us as we for so long have taken him for granted on every day when he was sitting in this House. I am grateful that his people and others around the country have come down to Parliament to see him off. That is a fitting tribute. To use the old biblical phrase we can all say: “Well done ye good and faithful servant.” Kia ora tātou.