He was nominated by a National Government both to be the chair of the World Trade Organization—rising to a higher office than any other New Zealander had—and also to be the Ambassador to the United States, and I, like a lot of younger New Zealanders, got to know Mike through his brilliant New Zealand Herald columns that he used to write before his ambassadorial post prevented him from having such a vocal megaphone in the nation's press. What I saw in those columns—and this is why I wanted to meet the guy—was that he had a certain amount of political pragmatism. It made him able to pierce the identity politics, the categorisation, and the boxes into which so many politicians are put or feel unable to escape, and achieve the kinds of results that our Prime Minister mentioned for ordinary people across the world. That's why I'm sad not to have met him, and why he is one of the very few politicians who can come through this place, grow in the role, and leave a mark that is indelible and that is defining of our nation and our identity—in particular, as a trading nation—and a mark that is also positive. 