Nikki Kaye: I’ll most likely be growing veges on Great Barrier
Where will you next see Nikki Kaye? Growing vegetables on a plot of land on Great Barrier Island.
Kaye walked out Parliament’s doors on a Tuesday evening and knew it was time to quit politics. It was a tumultuous day for the National Party, and a ‘‘natural ending’’ for Kaye’s career.
Surviving breast cancer grants a person that clarity of thought, in moments when life turns an unexpected corner.
There have already been job offers, or ‘‘opportunities’’, put to her since. Kaye won’t be specific about what they are – politics, businesses, charities – but they’re unlikely to be taken. She wants a break.
There’s little desire to work in the public spotlight. Instead, the idea of building a hut on Great Barrier beckons.
‘‘More than taking up other opportunities, you’re more likely to see me parked up with the vegetable garden on Barrier and, I don’t know, mentoring some young people,’’ she says.
But really, Kaye hasn’t quit politics. Yesterday afternoon, not even 48 hours after resigning, she’s at National’s Auckland Central campaign headquarters above her electorate office in Freemans Bay, unscrewing her own face from the party’s hoardings – ‘‘We were going to have to do that anyway.’’
And she was to join her team to hoist up faceless National Party-branded billboards at midnight.
There are few days off in politics, and this appears to have suited Kaye. She is known for her intensity, known for being a ferocious campaigner, for winning the Auckland Central seat in 2008 after it was held by Labour for most of a century.
She entered Parliament at 28 years old, held four ministerial portfolios including civil defence and education, battled breast cancer in the middle of it all, and, until Tuesday, spent two months as deputy leader of the National Party. She leaves Parliament at 40.
Since Kaye announced her sudden departure early on Thursday, there have been tears during an interview with
There have been questions on whether she’s quitting due to her own failures, after she and recently installed leader Todd Muller – who quit the job on Tuesday – struggled to deal with the fallout of MP Hamish Walker leaking the details of Covid-19 patients to media.
Walker’s actions set off a chain of events that have cost six people their jobs.
Among the fallen are MP Amy Adams, who also quit politics on Thursday, and former National Party president Michelle Boag, the source of the information passed to Walker, also a friend of Kaye’s.
Kaye has received several messages from Muller in the past day. She doesn’t hold him responsible for her losing the deputy job, and says she cares for him deeply. Neither will she attribute any blame to Walker for her departure, not that his actions are to be condoned.
‘‘I don’t at all, in any shape or form, have any animosity or think it’s anyone else’s responsibility but mine,’’ she says.
Kaye says what she will miss most is ‘‘having a seat at the table of so many people’s lives’’ as a local MP. What she won’t miss is the travel; a full week of sleeping in her own bed will be enjoyed.
‘‘The bit I just have to work my way through is, if there is an opportunity to help New Zealand in some shape or form, in a reasonably impactful way, then I will want to do that. But I don’t need to do that out the front – I’m very happy to do that in the background.’’
Kaye says she leaves the National Party in good hands. Often considered the party’s leading progressive liberal voice, Kaye says Hutt South MP Chris Bishop and Wellington-based MP Nicola Willis will now carry that wing of the party.
She’s touting a possible National Party win in the Auckland Central electorate she’s worked so hard to hold. Labour candidate Helen White was 1500 votes short of Kaye last election, and is already talking about the seat as if it’s rightfully Labour’s.
‘‘I don’t reckon,’’ Kaye says. ‘‘I reckon it’s probably going to be split three ways, between [Green MP] Chloe Swarbrick, Helen, and the National candidate.’’
The National Party has advertised that nominations for candidates will be open for one week.
‘‘Obviously, the timing was really tough for me because I really didn’t want to leave the party in a situation around Auckland Central, but I’m just working hard here in the electorate to ensure that we lay the groundwork for the new candidate.’’
Growing silverbeet and carrots Great Barrier may come. There hoardings to put up first. on are