King Annette: Obituaries — Hon Parekura HoromiaText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Obituaries — Hon Parekura Horomia[Sitting date: 07 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9609. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai): Kia ora tātou. Nau mai haere mai. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. I too want to acknowledge those who have travelled so far for this tribute to Parekura today. I know that since 5 a.m. this morning you have followed Parekura’s long trek on the road to Wellington the trek that he followed week in week out from 1999 until a few weeks ago—14 years. He knew every curve every corner in the road every town and the people who needed his help along the way and he would sit back there in the car driven by one of his stable of drivers working his cellphone. He could be mightily frustrating when you wanted to ring him because he was always engaged on that phone.So much has been said over the last week. What is left to say? We have heard about his connection to the community his knowledge of what was going on in people’s lives their issues their concerns their hopes their aspirations but also his empathy for those issues and concerns. We have heard how he never got too big for his boots that he never thought he was better than those around him. We learnt of his capacity for long hours for long drives and for hard work. We heard that he was hard to understand at times. I do not know whether my friend Shane Jones remembers this but one year I went to Rātana as we did year in year out. Parekura never missed it. I was seated behind Shane Jones and Dover Samuels. Parekura got up and he was speaking. I leaned forward and I said to Shane and Dover: “What’s he saying?”. They said: “We haven’t got a clue.”We heard that people told him he should go home. He would not go home from this place this place he loved. This is the place where he did his magic. This is the place where he wanted to be for as long as he could. He wanted to die in the job and that is what he did. But I want to say that his work was made possible by the support of so many people by his whānau his friends his supporters and his parliamentary staff. But today I want to particularly acknowledge the women in Pare’s life. I am not talking about his love interests. I know nothing of that matter. I want to acknowledge the women who organised things for him who looked after him who nagged him to slow down who fed him who drove him and who would do anything for him. He was surrounded by wonderful women. I used to tease him and call them his harem. He would laugh and he would nod. I want to thank all those wonderful women who made Pare’s hectic chaotic and hard-out life more bearable and more successful.There were other women in Pare’s life as well. You heard from Phil Goff of Pare’s love for the Māori Women’s Welfare League. I went along with him when I was a Minister to one of its annual conferences. I have never walked so slowly through a crowd. He was stopped by everybody. He was hugged he was kissed he was cajoled and he was acknowledged. He never pushed himself forward. He knew his place. He was always respectful at those conferences. His contribution to the Māori Women’s Welfare League was acknowledged with life membership. I have to tell you he was so proud of that honour. I loved that cartoon by Tom Scott that was in the paper last week.And what was Pare wearing in that cartoon? His life membership of the Māori Women’s Welfare League. I am not sure how many times he went to its conferences. Sometimes it was 42 sometimes it was 44; it could have been 46. But he went for decades such was his commitment.There was another woman in Pare’s life and that was the former Prime Minister Helen Clark. Her words were read out at his tangi. He was her rock and he was our rock. He was our constant in all things Māori. Helen relied upon him but she worried about him. Everyone knows that Pare had a weight problem. I became Minister of Health; therefore I was supposed to know something about health. I was sent along to talk to Pare about his weight. I went into his office and I said: “Pare you’ve got to lose weight. You’re going to join Weight Watchers.” He looked at me for a while and he said: “OK.” He then wrote out a cheque for Weight Watchers and became a weight-watcher by correspondence. It was a mission impossible. I am so glad that Pare’s cardiologist did not know that I was his health mentor; otherwise he might not have got such good service because I was the person who backed into Mr Abernathy’s new Jaguar.I first met Parekura in 1989 when I was Minister of Employment. In fact I was the Minister who set up the community employment development unit which was its name before it was changed by the next Government to the Community Employment Group. We have heard about it today. It was set up to think outside the square and to look at grassroots community-based economic development and job creation. It was set up by a small group of amazing people. It was led by people like Garry Moore who went on to become the Mayor of Christchurch. But there were also Wally Stone Jay Sepie Hilary Allison Richard Brooking John Bishara David Wilson—to name a few. It was cutting-edge stuff in terms of economic development. It scared the daylights out of the then Secretary of Labour Jas McKenzie. It needed a director a person who understood the community who understood economic development and regional development who knew what was possible where the resources were who the movers and shakers were in the community and who had been there and done that. As they say you know what the end of the story was: Parekura was the person who was chosen for the job because as Garry Moore said to me no one understood people with their backside out of their trousers like Parekura did. His commitment to local economic development was total. Only a few weeks ago he would say in the corridor: “Hey we’ve got to get back on to that local economic development. That is what this community needs.”He was never the stereotypical bureaucrat. In fact Garry Moore said that he was called into Pare’s office when he was the director and Pare said: “I’ve got to go to see the new National Minister.” Garry was not sure what he was meant to do but Pare said: “Teach me how to put on a tie.” In fact Pare did not know how to tie a tie until Garry Moore taught him and I give him 2 out of 10—it was hopeless from then on.Parekura did what he loved doing. He did it as Phil Goff said with passion with warmth with humour and—I would add another word—with naughtiness. Pare was naughty. You need only to ask our whips: the leave that was asked for that was never taken; the leave that was taken that was never asked for. We loved Pare. We will always remember him. He was an incredibly special person. Shane he has passed the baton on to you and I know that you will honour his memory and the work that he did. Kia ora tātou.