The reinvention of Paula Bennett:
From teen solo mum to Deputy Prime Minister to TV host, the former MP tells Emma Clifton why we should all embrace reinvention.
New life, new loves, new future
Earlier this year, as Paula Bennett headed to work in her new job as Director of Strategic Advisory at Bayleys Real Estate after leaving a 15-year career in politics, she could feel there was something missing. Though she was extremely happy in her new position, was starting to feel rested for the first time in over a decade, and was finally able to spend more time with her friends and family, there was a hole.
“It was after the summer break, going back into working full-time, and I thought, ‘I still need a stage… occasionally,’” Paula recalls.
Winking, she adds, “Know your personality, right?”
When it was announced that the former Deputy Prime Minister would be joining Seven Sharp’s Hilary Barry and comedian Tom Sainsbury for the reboot of the classic show Give Us a Clue, now screening on TVNZ 1, it felt both like a surprising announcement and an obvious choice.
Of course, this was the perfect move for Paula, whose swift exit from Parliament in October 2020 has left a real personality gap on her side of the political spectrum. To be back on our screens, fronting a game show, is that “occasional stage” she was looking for.
When the production company first approached her, it was an immediate yes from Paula.
“It was really liberating to be able to let my guard down, be a bit silly and have some fun,” she shares. “I definitely had some nerves – mainly because I’ve got the absolutely amazing queen of broadcasting Hilary Barry as captain of one team – but we spent some time together and I just instantly relaxed because she was so fantastic.”
Though the media and political worlds often cross over, Paula says she’d never had the chance to get to know Hilary very well.
“I didn’t know her in a personal manner, but like most of New Zealand, I probably thought I did because we see her on the TV every night,” she laughs. “She was so kind. She was a bit of a mentor, actually. Everyone wanted me to do my best and helped me to do that.”
The 52-year-old’s career has taken a few reinventions along the way – from studying social work to entering politics, and now moving into real estate and television presenting. Paula says that belief that people are on your side has been her key to every one of these changes.
“With age, I’ve realised the people who give you the opportunities, they want you to do well. With Bayleys, they were never going to set me up to fail. They wanted to set me up to succeed, so if I let them do that and then worked hard, I would be successful. And that’s how I felt about this show – I let the experts do what they do, trusted my instincts and took advice. If you do that in life, who knows what you might end up doing?”
Paula’s journey from teenage solo mother to deputy PM is often brought up because it’s a rare trajectory, but it’s also indicative of the kind of work ethic and hustle she’s been capable of for over 30 years. She is not afraid of pulling a 180-degree turn because that sense of “do what needs to be done and do it fast” has never left her.
“People who haven’t raised a child on their own don’t quite get it – often you are the sole decision maker,” she explains. “You’re deciding the everyday things and having all the normal anxiety of, ‘Am I feeding them healthily enough? Are they getting too much screen time?’ And then you’re also making the big decisions of which school they’ll go to, where you’ll live, how you’ll make enough money to survive… There isn’t time for navel-gazing. You just have to make a decision and go for it.”
“Not my problem”
It worked to get her into politics and it worked to get her out of there. Paula is keen not to be drawn on the state of New Zealand politics today. Her family has a joke that when someone tries to engage her on the topic, her flat-out response is, “I’m retired. I have no opinion.”
Her rationale is simple: “I was 100% in. I gave 100% while I was there. And now I’m 100% out. I think that’s very healthy – how unhealthy would it be if I’d left but 20% of me was still there and I missed it? Well, I don’t miss it. One. Little. Bit!
“In fact, I almost have anxiety when I go near Parliament because I’m just done. I don’t want to take away from what I did – because I loved what I did – but I’ve definitely moved on. We could all name previous politicians who, quite frankly, haven’t moved on and who feel the need to commentate. But I genuinely don’t.”
The year 2020 was a time of turmoil for everyone and
“There isn’t time for navel-gazing. You have to go for it.”
“I can be a rather big personality at times. Even I can get sick of me.”
certainly for the National
Party. A coup saw Paula and Simon Bridges, Leader of the Opposition, ousted with very little warning. And within just a handful of months, their replacements, Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye, stepped down, with Judith Collins taking the reins just before the pandemic-delayed election. It was reminiscent of the power reshuffle that Labour went through in 2017… minus the subsequent positive election result.
The time between her resignation announcement and the election was easier than expected, says Paula. “I really just disengaged. I had friends still running and I thought I could help, but then I realised really quickly that I wasn’t a help on the campaign trail. I pulled focus away from what they were trying to do. The lead-up to the election felt really good because it wasn’t my problem.”
The result itself was another story. As someone who is a National Party supporter, Paula was shocked. “But election night was Saturday and I started my new job on Monday morning happily,” she shrugs. “I just moved on. And I think it’s important for the people who are still there that I did because no one wants an armchair critic.”
No matter how you feel about her views, the political career of Paula Bennett ending not with a bang but with a whimper was disappointing to see. A late-night phone call from her new boss, who had rolled her old boss and was now letting her know she was basically being demoted, was not particularly well-handled, it’s fair to say.
“Look, I was hurt,” Paula says frankly. “That’s normal – in fact, you’d almost be worried if you weren’t a bit hurt at how it happened. But I’m surrounded by amazing people and I knew that I would be all right.
“Pretty quickly, I made up my mind that I was going to leave – I was ready and obviously circumstances meant that I could take that opportunity. So I then went through quite a crisis of working out whether my skills were transferrable. Plenty of people have left something and thought they’d be highly sought-after and be able to step into anything. I just didn’t know if that was going to be true for me.”
While she didn’t know what her next step was going to be, Paula was very clear on what she didn’t want it to be. “I think that can be just as valuable,” she asserts. She gave some thought to starting off her own business, but then decided against it.
“I can be a rather big personality at times,” she confesses, with no small amount of sarcasm. “Even I can get sick of me, so I thought I need something bigger than me and I want to be part of something big.”
She also had another couple of prerequisites, which will be no great surprise when you consider her appeal. “I didn’t want anything too PC – I wanted to be able to have a laugh at work. That was important to me. I like an environment that’s got an energy to it and I also like working with people who do take that self-responsibility. You’re as successful as hard as you work.”
Paula loves the fact New Zealand real estate business Bayleys is a family success story. “I’m literally surrounded by Bayleys – I basically sit in the middle of them.”
Her role as Director of Strategic Advisory means working on both big commercial buildings and also big residential properties, often liaising between government and commercial clients to get the deals done.
“I sometimes call myself the translator because I can speak Wellington and Auckland,” she laughs. “I can speak to the public sector and the private sector. You have to be able to understand both worlds because they don’t understand each other, but I see a lot of genuine strengths in both parts. To play a small role in helping them talk to each other is a real privilege.”
It’s a busy job, but nowhere near the all-consuming hours required in being an MP. She now has time for new loves. Seeing friends for dinner is a welcome luxury, so is reading – while in Parliament, she got through one novel per year because the job required so much other reading.
She and husband Alan Philps also adopted a Labrador puppy last year, something she couldn’t do while commuting between Auckland and Wellington for work. “We’d always wanted a dog, but it just wasn’t going to be fair because I was never home.”
Paula’s daughter Ana has moved her young family to Darwin for her work in social services and while the
former MP is proud, it’s been a hard adjustment not seeing her daughter and grandkids so much.
“There has been a lot of change for me in the past 12 months and I miss her. I’m pretty good at adapting to change and making the most of it, but I’m also pretty good at letting my body and my mind take the time they need to adjust.”
Up until a couple of months ago, Paula was still steering clear of the political world, but now she allows herself to check the political news a couple of times a week. “I like to keep up with what’s happening around the country and around the world. I’m an interested citizen.”
Her name has floated up a few times as a possible contender for the next Auckland mayoral election. “I’m really passionate about Auckland, but I’m allowed to give a damn about the city and not want to lead it,” she tells.
She’s not tempted at all? “Not at all. I am completely done with politics and that feels great.”
She misses her team, she says, although they have stayed close. “I did a lot of travelling internationally for New Zealand, and you get pretty close to your staff when you’re literally sleeping together on a plane and you wake up with your heads on each other’s shoulders, then you’ve forgotten your jacket so you borrow one of theirs.”
The “I need a stage” comment was one Paula had made to a former press secretary, so there’s little doubt her former team was just as convinced as she was that the Give Us a Clue hosting gig was a good move. It seemed certain that a post-politics career was always going to be an interesting time and she’s very happy with how things are going.
“I now get to make a decision on what I do and I probably turn down 50% of what I’m asked to do,” she says. “My criteria is either that it’s fun or it makes me money. Or, hopefully, it does both. That’s the stage I’m at. I’ve thought about what I want for the next two to three years, then I’m sure I’ll have another think after that.”
Paula works with two charities – she’s the trustee for Sea Cleaners, who clean up New Zealand’s shores, and she works with Mercy Hospice. “And that’s enough. I’ve learned to say no.”
Give Us a Clue most definitely ticked the fun box. Filmed over a couple of days, with well-known Kiwis coming in to compete against each other on teams, Paula said the entire process was a total blast.
Comedy stars like the Topp Twins are taking part – “Ken and Ken were an absolute hit; one of the Kens was a star of that particular show” – and competing against Hilary Barry as team leader is comedian Tom Sainsbury, whose impersonations of Paula were so adored by everyone, including Paula, that she asked him to help her announce her resignation from Parliament with a dancing skit.
There are sports stars – “hugely competitive, not unsurprisingly” – and even Paula’s former colleague Simon Bridges makes an appearance. “It was such fun to get my old boss around,” she laughs. “I got to tell him what to do after a couple of years of having him tell me what to do as his deputy.”
She’d love to be a part of the show again, but whether or not there’s a second season is up to the TV gods. Does her current set-up feel more stable than the very up-and-down world of politics, where the ground can come out from under you every election? She shakes her head.
“I don’t know what’s around the corner and Covid has shown us all that. I feel stable in a certain way, but there can always be major changes. We had to be voted on every three years in politics, but I always had confidence that I could be there for as long as I wanted. And if I’d really wanted to, I could have stayed.”
Give Us a Clue starts Wednesday, August 11 at 7.30pm on TVNZ 1
“My criteria is either that it’s fun or it makes me money.”