The Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith is leaving behind a three-decade-long political career to become a top diplomat.
Next year he'll be posted to London as the New Zealand High Commissioner.
Dr Smith struck the right chord in his last job in Parliament as Speaker, drawing on his institutional political knowledge and his earlier experiences on a children's quiz show.
But after 29 years in politics, it's the 1990s he'll remember most fondly.
“The decade of the '90s when I was minister of so many things, from education, agriculture, international trade, tourism, Deputy Finance Minister was an exciting period - opposition is always a challenge,” says Dr Smith.
But so was his time as Education Minister, when in one instance a student protest got so rowdy it was rumoured that Dr Smith was forced to hide in a chemistry lab before escaping through a back window.
Though he now says that window was actually a door, and he didn't climb out, but walked.
“The myth was that I climbed out of a toilet window,” he says.
Beryl Bright knows Smith better than most - she's worked as his executive assistant for nearly 27 years.
“You couldn't ask for a nicer guy to work for - he's fair, he's humorous, although the public don't see too much of that.”
When Dr Smith leaves next year it opens up a space for a new National list MP to move in. Aaron Gilmore is next in line – and the former MP, whose claim to fame was a fake CV scandal, says it's highly likely he'll be back.
3 News
source: newshub archive
