Rangatira: Sir Charles Bennett

...he was a statesman of the best kind, and I think he reflected that in the way that he worked in Malaysia. He had an affinity for establishing societies that were multicultural in the broader sense, because he bought that Māori-Pākehā heritage and he encouraged actively the Malaysian people to reclaim their mana motuhake . . .  [They had] gone through a bit of upheaval after the 1960/1970s riots over there...I mean he brought a sense of calm, but a sense of hope for them as well.

– Annette Sykes on Sir Charles Bennett’s time as NZ High Commissioner for Malaysia

Despite the crippling aspect of his war wound, it was characteristic of the man that he could still contribute all his energy and all his life into doing things again for other people, despite the handicap that he had.

– Kuru Waaka pays tribute to Charles Bennett

Well, I'd see him as the thinker. I mean nothing was done without very careful planning. He's a strategist. And everything that he did in his term with Māori Welfare, and the social advancement of our people, was very carefully planned. I mean this man was innovative in his thinking. The trade training schemes, starting up in that period, special employment schemes, all of those things...it's the mind of a thinker. I mean he had to be a good thinker and strategist to become commander of the battalion, to be able to go to Oxford after the war, and begin studying again. You don't do that by just falling out of bed and saying 'I'm going to go to Oxford and learn'. There was a careful sort of measure to this man . . . I hope it's there in some of the uri.

– Hone Kaa comments on Sir Charle’s Bennett's style of leadership at the end of the documentary's completion

He managed to always inculcate new ideas into conservative leadership, and that's a very real skill in itself. It's diplomatic, but it's also visionary....

– Lawyer (and later politician) Annette Sykes

Nā, ki au nei, koi nei pea ki āhau te whānuitanga o te titiro a Hāre Pēneti. Tana titiro, ahakoa ko wai, haere kimihia ētahi atu huarahi, ētahi tohu, kia tirohia mai ai koe te ao whānui, ehara te ao Māori noa iho, engari i te ao whānui, āe, ko tō tohu, e kite mai ana e rātou. Engari, ko te hōhonutanga atu, i te tahi ki te ao Māori, ko te mau i, te wairua Māori. /To me Charles Bennett had a breadth of vision. One had to also find a way to achieve some qualification to be seen by the world at large, but the depth of the Māori world is your wairua.

– Anne Delamere on the breadth of Hāre Pennett's perspective

It was because I'm a Māori, and when you consider the kind of Māori culture and our inheritance, I think it would be true to say that in a Māori society, it is not the individual that counts, but rather the people, the groups that everybody in the old days used to work for; the good not of himself, but of the people as a whole. If anybody is advantaged in some way, either through education or other ways, it is a firm Māori belief that you should hold those extra advantages in trust, not for the good of yourself, but rather for the good of people less fortunate than yourself.

– Charles Bennett answers the question 'What was it about your background that led you to the Labour Party?'