Listen Now: 
A kauri from the north has fallen.
That’s how former minister Dover Samuels remembers his Labour colleague and friend Mike Moore, who died yesterday aged 71.
He says being born and raised in Kawakawa, Mr Moore had a close empathy and appreciation with Northland and Ngāpuhi people.
His successful campaign for Eden in 1972, when at the age of 23 he became New Zealand’s then-youngest MP, brought a new wave of activists into the Labour Party.
He served briefly as Prime Minister in 1990, being handed the role as Labour headed into an election facing a backlash over Rogernomics.
He came close to winning back the Treasury Benches in 1993 before he was ousted by Helen Clark for the party leadership.
In 1999 he became head of the World Trade Organisation, bringing China into the organisation and kicking off the Doha round of negotiations.
He then served as New Zealand’s ambassador to Washington until a stroke in 2015.
Mr Samuels says he was a man of unparalleled mana, and one of the last of that era of politics.
!["p_facebook"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/facebook.jpg")
& !["p_twitter"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/twitter.jpg")
Copyright © 2020, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
