Former Speaker and Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe will retire from politics on February 6. Photo / NZME
Former Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe says it has been a real honour to have been involved in New Zealand politics.
The four-term Labour MP, from Rātana, will retire on Waitangi Day.
Rurawhe, first elected in 2014, represented the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate for nine years and was a presiding officer for six, including being elected as Speaker.
He announced on Wednesday that he would retire after almost 12 years in Parliament.
The 64-year-old said his decision was largely down to wanting to be more involved with his whānau and the Rātana Church (Te Haahi Rātana).
“Being involved in politics, you have such a busy life that there are a lot of competing interests.
“There’s been so many occasions where I haven’t been able to participate back home, purely because of commitments as a Member of Parliament.”
Rurawhe is of Ngāti Apa descent and was raised in Taihape, where his father worked as an engine driver for New Zealand Railways, now KiwiRail.
Rurawhe started work with an “office job” for New Zealand Railways aged 17 before transferring to Wellington in the finance and accounts department, controlling payrolls.
“I used to really enjoy that job, now that I mention it,” he said.
He has significant political and cultural lineage as the great-grandson of Rātana movement founder and prophet Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana.
His grandparents, Matiu and Iriaka Rātana, were Western Māori MPs in the 1940s and 1950s-60s, respectively.
Rurawhe said his family had been involved in politics for a long time, resulting in him being around it for his “whole life”.
“I basically went to my first Labour Party branch meeting when I was 12 years old.
“I’ve been around it for quite some time and actively involved since the 1990s.”
Rurawhe is also related to former Māori rights activist and politician Dame Tariana Turia and Rana Waitai, a former politician and lawyer.
He was the chairman of Ngāti Apa for 10 years after a stint on a school board of trustees, which he said “definitely had an impact” on his political career.
“I always say this, I said it in my maiden speech: I became a school board of trustees member, and it’s the correct place to learn about the fundamentals of governance.
“I did pretty well there as the chair for a number of years, and then I became the chair of my iwi because they identified that I’d learned all of those skills.”
“A huge learning curve” came when he was on the team that negotiated Ngāti Apa’s Treaty settlement with the Crown, concluded in 2011.
“In that role, I figured out that, if you want to make real change, the real change happens in Wellington. That was one of the biggest motivators for me to go into national politics.”
Despite growing up with politics and understanding governance, Rurawhe said it took some time to understand how Parliament worked.
“One of the things that I was determined to do was to try and work out exactly how Parliament ran,” he said.
“The whole mechanism of parliamentary process is a lot to get your head around but, once you do, you work out how you can achieve and get things done.”
Rurawhe used to sit beside experienced colleagues to learn the rules, and said former MP and Speaker Trevor Mallard was particularly helpful.
“He seemed to know every rule. Things would happen in the House and I’d say to him, ‘What just happened?’
“He was kind enough to share his knowledge with me. The Trevor Mallard I know is probably quite different to the Trevor Mallard that the general public might be aware of.”
Rurawhe’s proudest moments included being elected for the first time, excelling in roles he was not sure of initially, and becoming the second Māori Speaker, after Sir Peter Tapsell, who served between 1993 and 1996.
“Presiding officer is not a job that I would have chosen for myself, and I was unsure about doing it, to be honest. However, [Chris Hipkins and Jacinda Ardern] had confidence in me, so I thought, ‘Well, they think I can do it, so I’ll do the best I can do.’
“It’s been a real honour and privilege to do that role.”
He was proud to have been involved with the deed of settlement between the Crown and Ngā Hapū o te Iwi o Whanganui when it was initialled last December.
“Being intimately involved, being from Whanganui and being such a unique piece of legislation, even today there’s not quite any [other iwi/hapū that has] got anything like it, really.”
He will now settle back into an active role at his church.
“It’s mostly a voluntary organisation and I want to, while I can, make some contributions because I think I’ve got a lot to offer.”
Rurawhe will be replaced in Parliament by Georgie Dansey (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), who is next on the Labour Party list.
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.