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and Labour was determined to win it back. The nomination was fiercely contested. ‘‘I was relatively new – there were people who’d been involved in the party for a lot longer than I had, and so it was certainly pressure to perform.’’

When he entered Parliament in 1993, at 35, he made a miscalculation that would stall his career for more than a decade. ‘‘When Helen [Clark staged a coup] I was the only one of 14 [new] MPs who voted for Mike Moore. It set my early career back. I came in with 13 other new entrants in 1993, and they all moved on.’’

He was frustrated to lose out to Mark Burton, who was appointed tourism minister in 1999. But he finally landed the job – and the agriculture portfolio – in 2005. ‘‘Every time there is a reshuffle and you don’t get something you want, you are disappointed. That’s the harsh reality of politics and your ability to handle that and move on will determine whether you’ll hang in there or bail out.’’

He didn’t bail out, even when he lost his seat to National’s Chris Auchinvole in 2008. While the parliamentary party tore itself apart in Opposition, O’Connor channelled his frustrations into winning over the electorate again. ‘‘Then there was the hope in ’14 that we might win. Obviously, I was disappointed, but I have always set a goal to focus on something positive rather than get down. Developing policy on agriculture from ’14-17 I guess kept me going.’’

But he didn’t pull any punches in the endless and fractious caucus meetings, led by a series of failing leaders.

‘‘I’ve usually been fairly upfront and spoken my mind – that gives you a sense of satisfaction that you’ve done what you can. There’s a place in caucus where we all come with similar ambitions but different approaches and lots of frustrations because you are not making progress.

‘‘The leadership are making the calls and you disagree with them. Yeah, I don’t want to waste time going back over things. There could be a list of mistakes that you could point to, as long as your arm, but what’s the point? You’ve got to focus on the future.’’

O’Connor won’t be drawn on what his future holds. Three of his five daughters have moved into his Wellington flat, displacing Cabinet colleague David Parker after five years. Now he comes home to a tidy home, occasionally dinner.

‘‘The opportunity to share your thoughts at the end of a day has really helped me, because it can be a really lonely existence in politics. You work in your office all day and all night, you go to committees where you don’t exchange any niceties. You are just focused on the job.’’