From early hope and promise as New Zealand's first Pacific Islander MP to the tears and disgrace of corruption convictions, Catherine Masters follows a controversial career.
Taito Phillip Field grins from ear to ear in old Herald photos. In some he's surrounded by other beaming Samoans. In one image a young Maxine, his wife, plants a kiss on his cheek.
They were joyous days. Full of hope and promise, yet perhaps even then a little weighty
with the expectation of a people.
It was March, 1994 and Field was a new Labour MP.
The union man had come up through the meatworks and smashed the highest glass ceiling of them all, becoming the first Pacific Islander to be elected to Parliament.
Yesterday, the grins turned to tears. No politician has fallen quite so hard.
Field was in his early 40s when he became an MP.
He's 56 now and facing prison.
The big rugby player frame has thickened with the passing years but he sat proud and unflinching for most of his marathon trial as, for 3 chilly winter months, lawyers picked over times, dates, amounts, paint, tiles, houses renovated, houses bought and houses sold.
Yet, we already knew so much. Field has been on trial really for the past four years, since the media first published allegations he had tiling work carried out at his house in Samoa by a Thai man he was trying to obtain a work permit for.
Other claims followed.
An inquiry found him guilty of poor judgment but not criminal misconduct.
Then more allegations, that Field had ducked and dived during the inquiry, covering up and falsifying information, and he finally landed in the High Court at Auckland.
Though MPs have come and gone from Parliament for poor behaviour or judgment, Field is the first to have been so comprehensively accused and found guilty of corruption, bribery and cover-up, though he and his family remained steadfast in their claims of innocence.
Some supporters said that what was really on trial were aspects of the Samoan culture; in particular the concept of lafo, or donation, where you do someone a favour and they repay you in some way.
Lafo is an integral part of the culture and is powerful to the point that even if you say no, money can be stuffed in your pocket, or, apparently, your house tiled.
In New Zealand, though, when you're an MP and work permits are involved, this is corruption.
What a comedown from the glory days when Field and his wife were driving around in ministerial limousines, when they owned a string of properties in South Auckland and had a flat in Wellington.
And what a fall from grace for Field, who had promised so much and who, according to many we spoke to, did achieve a great deal for his constituents.
Sitting around outside court one day, family and friends got talking.
One supporter said Field had helped hundreds and hundreds of people in his electorate, and others spoken to have said the same.
The Mangere electorate is one of the poorest in the land and it is where immigrants often land and stay.
Field's clinics, first in Otara where he was first elected and then in Mangere, were always packed with desperate people.
He became known as the go-to man when you were being deported or had immigration or housing matters to sort out.
The island way is to put your education and status to good use; you help those who need help, said the young supporter.
On another day, another member of the extended support group said Field identified with his working class electorate because of his own struggles when he first arrived in this country.
"When Phillip came here and couldn't speak English, and he sees it in the Thai people, people from Africa, other countries ... He sees their weakness, their vulnerability and their helplessness and it's a cry."
When you help people who are so desperate, the man said, human nature is to want to repay in some way and when the favour is something that has impacted on a person's very future, the need to pay back is very high indeed.
But as an MP - where he swore an oath to uphold the law - and long-term New Zealand resident, surely Field should have known better, to not swap tiling for work permits?
Of course, said people we spoke to, yet when asked whether Field was corrupt or just foolish, most opted for foolish. Because Field was something of a working class hero in his younger days.
There was a sense of sadness from old union mates that he had sunk so low.
One was long-time union activist Matt McCarten who shared an office with Field when they were union officials in the hospitality industry.
McCarten is saddened, and puzzled, by Field's plight. This is not the Field he knew, he said.
"It's a human interest story in a genuine sense, how someone crosses a line and doesn't know they've crossed it."
When they worked together it was the glory days of the union movement.
They worked the hotels, it was a time of mass strikes and picket lines, of occupying hotels and getting dragged out, and of winning some significant battles over pay and conditions.
"We were brothers in arms, we were going to change the world, we were going to fight for the workers, where the boss doesn't get their way all the time, oh yes, we were young and we were romantic."
Field never backed away from what he thought was right, said McCarten.
"He was never soft, but he wasn't like a mouth, he didn't just mouth off, he was very considered.
"He was a leader, he wasn't just a union official, he was a leader of people."
Something that has surprised McCarten is the emergence of Field as a deeply religious man.
McCarten, and other union mates, had always thought he was a Marxist and an atheist.
But Field's religious leaning came more and more to the fore in Parliament, so much so there were problems in Caucus.
Field would cross the floor to vote against the party on moral issues.
He voted against the prostitution law reform bill, against the civil union bill, against the anti-smacking bill.
Though political spin was put on this, that then Prime Minister Helen Clark was allowing Field to vote according to his conscience, word is certain members of Cabinet were very annoyed.
But Field, as always, would not be budged on what he thought was right.
When in the wake of these allegations he was finally expelled from Labour and set up his own party, the extremely religious New Zealand Pacific Party, his vision was that New Zealand would become a "God fearing nation" returning to traditional values.
There were even talks with Destiny Church's Brian Tamaki and on the campaign trail in Mangere last year he told factory workers: "We have to do away with ungodly laws - to acknowledge the word of God. We need to repeal the anti-smacking law, the prostitution law and ban abortion."
In the end, he lost the Mangere seat, and yesterday he lost his pride.
* From Phillip Field's maiden speech
The Labour Party was formed some 78 years ago by working people and their unions to fight against uncontrolled capitalism and the ideology of the free market. They wanted to fight against policies based on greed, oppression, alienation and injustice.
Today we are facing the same mentality and ideology that existed in the days of Charles Dickens, although dressed up in different clothes, with new fancy words and new intellectual arguments to justify actions.
Irrespective of time and age, greed will always be greed, selfishness will always be selfishness and oppression will always be oppression.
