Politicians past and present, from across the political spectrum, have been paying tribute to the former Labour Party Prime Minister Mike Moore who died yesterday at the age of 71.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Opposition leader Simon Bridges both agreed he was a great New Zealander who won respect on both sides of Parliament because of his commitment to the country and its people.
Jim Bolger, who defeated Mr Moore to become Prime Minister in 1990, praised him for his political passion and for his work promoting New Zealand trade, both as a trade minister and later as head of the World Trade Organisation.
Former cabinet colleage Richard Prebble said Moore constantly bubbled with ideas for other ministers to pursue.
The never-ending string of off-the-cuff ideas once led David Lange to describe Moore as being like "a pinball machine wired by a colour-blind electrician".
In 2017 RNZ journalist Guyon Espiner spoke to Moore for his series on former prime ministers, The 9th Floor.
Moore told him that when he lost the Labour leadership to Helen Clark, he wished he'd been like an Australian politician and been able to plan a comeback.
One of the themes of the interview was how his blue collar working class upbringing had shaped his political career - and how different today's Labour Party is from the party he joined as a teenager.
Guyon Espiner speaks to Susie Ferguson.
