The life and times of National’s Westie MP
Paula Bennett broke the mould for National Party MPs. Thomas Manch writes.
It ended just as it began: in leopard print. Paula Bennett fronted waiting reporters at a Hobsonville Point, West Auckland, cafe wearing her customary colours, standing in front of the blue banners of the National Party.
A shameless Westie, teenage solo mother, truck-stop waitress, and deputy prime minister, Bennett has a story unlike many National MPs. And yesterday she called time on the 15-year chapter that was her political career.
‘‘The whole thing though has been a hell of a ride and I have loved it,’’ she said.
It has been an eventful few years. Bennett has been a klaxon for panic over the Government’s proposed legalisation of cannabis; a lattebowl-drinking, panini-eating, suburbanite caricature acted by comedian Tom Sainsbury; and the victim of a political coup in recent months.
But a look through her political career reveals her to be memorable for other reasons: working-class mum turned politico, welfare reformist who cracked down on beneficiaries and solo mothers, and source of controversial leaks to journalists.
Bennett’s storied entry to Parliament
Bennett, a recruitment manager, garnered little mention in the press when, aged 36, she was selected to run for National in Waitakere in 2005.
She lost the electorate race, but entered Parliament on National’s list. Her contemporaries included current Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones, then a Labour MP, activist Hone Harawira, then a Ma¯ ori Party MP, and a raft of National MPs who have since been and gone.
Bennett did not come from nowhere, she was vocal within the party for years before then. A 2001 New Zealand Herald report on a race for the presidency of National, whose leadership is less visible to voters, shows the ‘‘solo mother from Albany’’ telling a party meeting that it ‘‘had to move out of its comfort zone and broaden its base’’.
She worked in National MP Murray McCully’s electorate office and helped him campaign in the 2002 election. National leader Don Brash asked her to stand for Parliament.
She was undoubtedly from outside the comfort zone of National. In her maiden speech in the House, she talked of climbing out of poverty and of being a single, teenage mother. It signalled much of what was to come.
‘‘I had short stints on a benefit, but I knew that being in paid work was the only way for us to try to get ahead. In the early days I worked two jobs,’’ she said.
‘‘With unemployment levels at their lowest in many years, we should also be seeing reduced numbers of those receiving welfare. But we are not. The number of people receiving benefits is still way too high, and the cost to taxpayers is huge.
‘‘I support an initiative that would see those who are on the domestic purposes benefit in some sort of part-time employment, retraining, or community service when their youngest child reaches school age. Raising our next generation is, without doubt, the most important job those parents will do, but we equally have a responsibility to instil in our children a sense of ambition and aspiration.’’
National was to remain in
Opposition for three more years. Bennett claimed spokesperson roles for welfare and the community and voluntary sector.
Social development minister
Bennett’s rags-to-riches story became political folklore when the public began paying more attention to her after the 2008 election.
Newly elected Prime Minister John Key elevated her from 41st on the party list to 16th, and she was given a spot in Cabinet as social development minister.
With it came profile pieces in the major newspapers, detailing her upbringing in Kinloch, near Taupo¯ , how she became a single mother, her years on and off the benefit between low-paid jobs – including working at a truck stop.
Her brother, Mark, died in a freak accident on an oil rig in Indonesia in 1991, an event that set her on a collision course with the National Party.
‘‘He left me a little bit of money, enough to get me to Auckland. I managed to buy a car and some furniture. He had always believed I could do something else and Taupo¯ would be the downfall of me. He told me I needed to move away from Taupo¯ to change my life. I suppose him dying catapulted me to make some changes,’’ Bennett told Stuff in 2009.
In Auckland, she washed dishes at a rest home. Beginning a social work degree at Massey University, she was exposed to student politics. She took a job as an electorate secretary at