Parliament's Deputy Speaker, Clem Simich, retired tonight and said he was leaving Parliament with no regrets.
Mr Simich was MP for Tamaki from 1992 to 2005 and a list member after that. He was minister of police and minister of corrections in the previous National government.
"This has been the most delightful time of my life," he said in his valedictory speech.
"To have been a Member of Parliament, to have been a representative...I have no regrets at all." Mr Simich praised Speaker Margaret Wilson, saying she had a sense of humour, absolute integrity and was "just good to be with".
He also had warm words for Prime Minister Helen Clark, saying she was the first person to visit him after he won the Tamaki by-election.
And he recalled another Labour prime minister, David Lange.
Mr Simich said he once fought a by-election against Mr Lange.
"During that by-election Lange was making fun of me, he was saying I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and he wasn't," Mr Simich said.
"One night I reminded him of something. I said `David, you should stop saying that. My mother was your father's housekeeper'.
"From that point on we were as close as we could be. We had a very good relationship." Mr Simich said he was leaving with special friends in Parliament -- 121 of them.
"I've been on the right side, I think, of all of them."
