PAULA BENNETT:
her 50kg weight loss and why she loves her body – big or small
It may be still six months until the September election, but Paula Bennett estimates she is already pulling 90 to 100 hour weeks. On the day of her Australian Women’s Weekly cover shoot, we are appointment three in a schedule that starts in the early hours of the morning and finishes late at night, before she’s up at 4.45am the next day to do it all again. In a tightly packed life like this, all you need is one domino to fall over and everything gets out of whack. So it’s Murphy’s Law in action when, on the way to our cover shoot, Paula stopped to get petrol and, along with a group of others, got locked in the petrol station for 20 minutes after the automatic doors stopped working. They did get a free coffee for their trouble though, she jokes, sipping her flat white, so that’s something.
She arrives for the shoot like the energetic whirlwind she always is – Paula has one speed, and that speed is full-on. She’s particularly firing on all cylinders because, for the first time in about 10 years, she allowed herself to create a “politics-free zone” over the summer holidays. What does that entail? Well, in this case, it involved quality time with family, no
technology and, on one occasion, a wig. “It became a bit of a family joke,” she laughs. “I didn’t watch the news religiously, I didn’t look at social media much.” Any time anyone mentioned something political, Paula and/or her family would shut it down by calling out “politics-free zone!”(she puts on a faux shrill voice, laughing). At one point, she decided she might extend this to heading out in public.
Paula Bennett’s particular appeal means she is extremely recognisable everywhere, to everyone. So one day, she decided to wear a wig. “It was a reasonably good one, too – and I’d even put a hat on top of the bob,” she explains. “I met my mum in a café and thought I’d freak her out. I walked in, and she sort of looked three or four times, and then clocked me,” she laughs. “I sat down, talking to Mum, and within five minutes, people came up and asked for photos, because they recognised me. My mother thought it was hilarious!”
Politics is a very full-time gig, you always have to be “on” and ready to talk about everything. So being able to spend time mainly just around family for a short while was the break she needed. “If someone called me, and it was work, I wouldn’t take the call, and I would text them and say, ‘Do you need me, or could it wait until Monday? I’m just with my kids.’” She also managed the quite rare trick of being off email for a brief while. “For the first time in 10 years, I didn’t look at emails for four days in a row,” she says dramatically. “I was really proud by the end of day two, and then by day four, I started having a little bit of anxiety, so I logged in.”
There can’t be many perks to being in opposition, but the ability to turn your email off for four days is one of them. You might think this is a minor deal, but during the three hours we spend with her, Paula’s phone dings so consistently you can imagine that tiny notification bell probably haunts her dreams. But that break meant that when the political year started again, Paula was ready and raring to go. The first port of call was directing a giant photo shoot for the National Party team, which she says was a delightful way to kick things off. “It was fun observing others seeing each other again for the first time in a few weeks, and the look of delight,” she says. “It made me realise again what a neat bunch of people they all are. You spend a lot of time in Parliament, in some cases you spend more time with your colleagues than you do with your own family in a week. So you do get close.”
There have been four National leaders since Paula has been in the party, and she’s been deputy leader since 2016: first with Bill English and then current leader Simon Bridges. That meant a very quick turnaround, creating a united front with a brand new boss. “The relationship has to be built on trust, that is without a doubt the most important aspect of it,” Paula says. “You have a very blunt conversation early on, and then decide you will base the relationship off that.” Paula’s working relationship with Simon is also built on a healthy amount of being in each other’s lives; weekly debriefs over a wine about the week that was, texting his wife
Natalie – “not always Simon-related, we were talking fashion last time” – and looking at endless photos of Simon’s three children. “Every time
I go into his office, he’s always got another video of them to show me,” she laughs. It’s like any other workplace, she says. “You’re interested in each other’s lives and families.”
Talking point
But of course, in other workplaces, you’re not in the public eye to such an extent that a change of haircut or – dare we say – body size, means you have to pop on a wig to have a coffee with your mum. Like all female politicians, Paula is used to the fact that everything about her appearance is up for grabs as a discussion point. “I can put up a photo of me speaking at an event and it’ll be more about what I was wearing or whether or not they liked my haircut than perhaps who I was speaking to, or what I was saying,” she says. She doesn’t think it’s necessarily grown worse over time – “I think about what Helen Clark went through, as a woman leader” – but admits she has found it frustrating at times. “But equally…” she shoots me a grin, “I’m not a wallflower. I do love fashion and clothes, so I’m quite open to conversation on it. It’s about how you cut through that to make sure your message is heard as well.”
In 2018, Paula went public about the fact that she’d had gastric
bypass surgery for health reasons. Since then she’s lost around 50kg. The biggest change, two years down the track, is that she feels more comfortable – literally. “When I was bigger, clothes cut into me a bit. You’re always trying to hold everything in and that takes a lot of energy,” she says.
But there is a specific criticism that Paula doesn’t care for, and that’s that the surgery has changed how she feels on the inside. Because the thing is – she’s always liked herself and liked the way she looks. Which shouldn’t be a revolutionary statement but… it is. As women, there is often an implicit belief that you should be self-critical, that you should hate yourself or the way you look, just a little. But Paula has never seemed like someone who felt uncomfortable in her own skin. “No!” she exclaims. “Or, to be blunt, unattractive! I really didn’t. I liked me back then, I liked being bigger and owning that space and dressing that up.” Does she think that being confident can make women a target? “I think so – I think there’s something about how you hold yourself,” she pauses. “I get the ‘Kiwi humble’ thing, and look… there’s been so much shaming in so many directions over the years, that it’s kind of like…” she shrugs. “I’ve been very open and very honest about the operation and I always knew that would mean that I would get a level of judgement. But I don’t really get how people can then be so cruel – because they’re not necessarily being cruel to me, they’re being cruel to the
The hectic life of a parliamentarian means Paula sometimes sees more of National leader Simon Bridges than her own family.
other thousands of New Zealanders trying to change their health status and their lives.”
“I’m still funny and loud, and I was that when I was bigger, and I’m still that now I’m smaller. Which is where some people’s comments that they now think I’m showing off, it’s like… ugh,” she rolls her eyes. “Before I was ‘a big, jolly fat person’ and now I’m the ‘showy-offy smaller one’. You kind of can’t win, can you? I feel like I’m the same, as far as my personality. I’m sure I irritate people but I’m sure I irritate people whether I’m bigger or smaller,” she laughs. “It’s got nothing to do with my body.”
When she was asked last year how she felt in her smaller body, she said there were times when she still looked in the mirror and saw her old size, as if her brain hadn’t caught up. These days, she feels more settled.
“Look,” she deadpans, “I’ve got a full new wardrobe now and all the fat clothes are gone, so I do feel a strong motivation to stay this size without a doubt, because I can’t afford to go and redo that wardrobe again,” she laughs. “But, equally, in my body, I now feel like I’m the size
I’m meant to be. As far as personality or who I love or what I’m doing, that’s all the same. I’m lucky.”
Family ties
Her family unit is a tight one; she’s lucky to still have both parents alive and well; she married her teenage sweetheart Alan Philps, after 20 years apart, in 2012. Her daughter Ana, 33, has three children and Alan also has two daughters and two grandchildren, so there’s a support network that helps balance out the insanity that comes with a job that tends to engulf your entire life.
It is, Paula says, incredibly helpful having a partner who’s not in politics. “Not only that, but someone who is also not that interested in politics,” she says. “I know others have said that he’s a bit elusive, but he’s not really – he just has his own life, and I’ve got my life. So we’re a complete partnership, in every sense of the word, but he has his own thing going on as well.” It might be somewhat telling that very few politicians have spouses who work in Parliament. “A lot of them have partners who are more involved than mine. Mine only gets involved at a local level,” Paula says. “He gets to know the local supporters and helps put out my signs, that kind of thing. But in general, he keeps out of it. He can support me better by not sitting there and talking about politics with me all night, quite frankly.”
Paula’s friendship circle has also remained close – her three best friends come from her teen years or 20s. “The kind of friendship where you can ring them up on a Saturday at 1pm saying ‘text me your recipe
“I’m still funny and loud, and I was that when I was bigger, and I’m still that now I’m smaller.”
for pulled beef because I’m thinking it’s Mexican night.’” She’s also good friends with World designer Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet. “I have to go to the movies with her because she talks so much,” Paula says, and then gestures to my dictaphone, “and you can so put that in the story,” she hoots. “We went to the tennis the other week and we had to have a talk before about how you’re not allowed to chat while they’re playing, because we’re just as bad as each other.”
Potential spotted
She is very, very aware that the life she leads now is very different from what she imagined was possible when she became a mother in her late teens. She credits the National Party value of self-responsibility as the number one characteristic that sets the party apart.
“When I met National Party people… and I met more of those wonderful supporters when I started getting involved, it was them that really locked it in for me. Because when they looked at me, all they saw was potential. I felt like I could make something of myself, and perhaps not have the kind of outcome that at times felt inevitable when you’re so young and you’ve had a baby on your own.”
When asked if she thinks her story of solo teenage mum to deputy prime minister would be possible in any other country, she shakes her head.
“Look at America, they still don’t even have a female president!” She then proceeds to tell an anecdote from her time as deputy prime minister to Bill English. She was at a packed domestic terminal, where everyone had to double up and share tables. A young American couple joined her table while she was working, and they got talking. “I was trying to avoid talking about Trump,” she laughs. “Everybody around us could hear the conversation, because they were quite loud Americans. We got to politics, and I said something about ‘Bill’. And they said, ‘Do you know the prime minister?!’ I said, ‘Yes, I do,’ and they said, ‘Does everyone in New Zealand know everyone?’”
By this stage, everybody around the table was listening and laughing along. The tourists asked Paula how she knew Bill, and she said she knew him from work. “They looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God, is your husband a politician?’” She laughs at the memory.
“Their flight was called and we were taking a selfie, of course, and the people around me said, ‘You have to tell them.’ It just amuses me so much that in their minds, it must have been my husband in politics. That’s where America is at.”
As much as our little country may seem divided at times, Paula thinks we’re in a far better position than others. “I met a guy in America and he owned a hotel, and he wouldn’t let Obama stay there, because his politics were opposite,” she says. “I just couldn’t comprehend that.
“So we’re very lucky in New Zealand. I have really good friends who vote Labour – who cares? It makes the world a better place, I think, to have that. I don’t think our system is perfect, but I think it’s the best I’ve seen.”
“Look at America, they still don’t even have a female president!”