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August 26, 2019
Pita Paraone tremendous servant of his community
Waatea Team
Posted On August 26, 2019
Former New Zealand First MP and Ngāti Hine leader Pita Paraone has died in Auckland at the age of 74.
Mr Paraone worked for the Department of Māori Affairs, Te Puni Kōkiri and the Māori Trust Office before entering parliament on the New Zealand First list in 2002.
For more than two decades he held the Kawiti whānau seat on the Waitangi National Trust, chairing the trust and also the organising committee for Waitangi Day commemorations.
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says he had a lovely spirit and also great depth.
"He had been ably assisted by his kaumātua including Sir James Henare, Tarutaru Rankin, a Ngāpuhi chief in his time, Brownie Puriri, blue blood of the Ngāpuhi, so Pita enjoyed tremendous tutelage so today the north and the world of politics, we mourn the passing of both a parliamentarian and a tremendous servant of his community," he says.
Pita Paraone will be taken to Mōtatau Marae.
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