Macindoe TimTIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): There are times in life when it is appropriate to be gracious. I want to associate myself with the comments of the Deputy Prime Minister the Hon Bill English and the Hon Gerry Brownlee. In particular I want to acknowledge the very warm and generous tributes of the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell David Seymour from the ACT Party who spoke before him and also the Hon Peter Dunne who although he has not spoken in this debate today made similarly complimentary remarks yesterday.It does not mean that any of the leaders of those parties endorses everything that the National Party leads on and decides—far from it—and that is a matter of public record. But we have there the leaders of three parties who have shown that through relationships where there is mutual respect a genuine desire to focus on the issues that matter to New Zealanders and a realisation that under the MMP system of politics at times compromises are necessary we have enjoyed over the last 8 years a highly successful period in Government. I warmly salute all three of those parties for their significant contributions to that. What a shame therefore that we have not seen the same degree of graciousness from members who have spoken from across the House although I do acknowledge the remarks that the Hon Annette King commenced with and I thank her for that.So like most New Zealanders I did not wake up yesterday expecting the Prime Minister to announce his resignation. But after I got over the shock of what had occurred and thought about it later in the day I realised that actually it was exactly what I have always expected—that John Key would choose the timing and the manner of his departure and that he would have the opportunity to leave this House with his head held high and enjoying the appreciation and admiration of an overwhelming number of New Zealanders. And that in itself is a very rare achievement for any politician.Despite the cheap and churlish attacks that we heard particularly from the New Zealand First Party today and also from the leader of the Greens the fact of the matter is that our Prime Minister has always—and unrelentingly—focused on the things that matter most to New Zealanders. One of the reasons why I have been so proud to be a member of the party while he has been our Prime Minister has been that we have made a significant difference in areas that matter through some of the most challenging times that our country could possibly have imagined. No one else in our lifetime has governed through a global financial crisis of such magnitude. No one else in our lifetime has had to lead a country through the devastating Canterbury earthquakes and more recently the Kaikōura earthquake its impact on Wellington and the long period of instability and huge fiscal impact that those events have had.We have also seen a number of other major challenges—the Rena disaster Pike River floods and you name it. So it goes on. On every one of those occasions the Prime Minister and the team he has led have stood beside the people who were affected and have been there to provide the support that is necessary. That is why he has maintained the gratitude and the respect of so many New Zealanders.In 2002 John Key and I were both new candidates for the National Party. I have to say that his campaign as the candidate for Helensville was considerably more successful than mine was that year in the devastating election that saw me absolutely hammered in Tauranga. But I enjoyed getting to know him then hugely admired watching his progress during the next few years and was very pleased to see him take the leadership of the party when he did.I believe that New Zealanders generally will acknowledge him warmly. Contrary to what Mr Prosser said the historians will look back on some of the issues that I have just referred to and the really significant role that our minor party supporters have played—particularly over the Treaty settlement process—and they will judge him highly as he deserves to be. It is never possible to please all of the people all of the time but to have retained the level of support that he has done in the polls is no coincidence; it shows that he has been somebody who has been there focusing on the things that matter. And he has achieved wonderful things with the delivery of Better Public Services; the Treaty settlement process which I have referred to; the focus in particular on vulnerable New Zealanders by raising benefits introducing free doctors visits for children under 13 measures to deal with our problems particularly for emergency housing—the list goes on—and his unrelenting focus on raising standards of achievement in education.He has been an outstanding Prime Minister he leaves a legacy that will be admired—and is admired—by international leaders and I am incredibly proud to have been a part of that team. I salute him and I thank him sincerely on behalf of my constituents and all New Zealanders.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.