Will's Word: David Parker bows out with his principles intact

David Parker is calling it a day, and with him arguably goes one of Labour's last actual Labour MPs.

The man held many portfolios in his time, Attorney General twice, Trade, Environment, Revenue, Climate Change, Transport.

He even served as Deputy Leader during the David Cunliffe era, which, if you're a regular listener of Pacific Mornings, I often say was Labour's messiest era.

And bless Parker, he gave leadership a crack when Cunliffe stepped down, but he came third behind Andrew Little and Grant Robinson.

I didn't always agree with Parker, especially when tax talk started sounding like a university economics lecture.

A wealth tax he obviously backed - his own party, though, ruled it out in the last election, and I respect this about him.

Instead of quietly towing the line, Parker dipped out of the revenue portfolio. Imagine standing on business like that in 2025.

Let me put it for you in a more simple way: imagine having that much principle to step aside from a portfolio - being brave enough to step aside.

Now he's stepping away, iconically not in scandal or defeat, but perhaps just acknowledging that his time is up, and I respect that about him.

Listen to Will’s Word on Facebook below.

The thing about politicians, and I don't want to name names, is that some of them stick around far too long, well beyond their expiry date.

Parker, I still thought had a bit of fight left in him, but good on him leaving on arguably a high. So here's to you David Parker, never quite the main character, but always doing main character work.

The policy wonk, the tax reformer - sort of. The guy who stayed long after most of his cohort tapped out.

Parliament's losing one of the last real ones. You were too real for that place, that's the problem.

That's Will's Word.