Just get on with it, says Finance Minister as paper work piles in
Kevin Norquay
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has a reputation for being decisive,
Finance Minister Nicola Willis is passionate about Government that moves faster, decisively and with clarity, and believes voters and officials want that too.
“People get frustrated by the government because they hear us talking about problems and talking about what we’d like to see, but they don’t see the action to back that up,” she tells
“Making government go quicker is a big part of what drives me, we can have these big talk fests, we can usually describe the problem, we can have a lovely paper that sets out multiple options and different pathways … actually make a decision and act.
“My sense is that the government itself is up for that – in the sense that agencies and officials … want to have a positive impact and get frustrated by ministers changing their minds.
“If you’ve got leaders who act with clarity and decisively and with pace, then it makes everyone easier and makes it easier for everyone to follow.”
Willis says in her job there are always endless piles of paper to read and sign, and at times she feels the need to push back and ask for something more succinct, or to dismiss those which are of lower priority.
After just 100 days in the job, she is still working it out, and working out how to balance the demands of the country’s finances and home life with four children.
As well there was an awareness that total investment in the machinations of politics and Parliament could lead to misery. She was not her job.
“I live my life in such a way that if that happens tomorrow, I get sacked, because actually I’ve seen it happen in politics, it’s just the reality of these jobs,” she says.
“I have seen people eaten up by this place, they become so much their political identity that when that’s gone they realise all the things that used to matter to them, their friends, their children, their family, their community, the things they used to value aren’t there any more, and they need to rebuild them.
“I don’t want to be in that position if the worst happens.”
She carves out family time, hides the phone, has close friends who don’t talk politics, and walks in the hills above Karori.
“I make sure that I have nights where I do stuff that is completely non-productive, and it’s not going to further the state of the Government’s finances in any way,” she says.
“Just like everyone else I have nights where I come home from work and I put on my track pants and I don’t have it in me to do anything other than sit on the sofa and read the kids a book.”
That has taken personal effort akin to weaning yourself off cigarettes, or some other addiction.
“I never have a moment where I think `oh, maybe I’m being lazy’ I need to do the Nicola Willis calibration, ‘remember, you’re not lazy’. If you’re thinking I’m a bit exhausted and I need another day, or I need another week, then it’s probably okay. But I drive myself.
“I’m not actually helping anyone if I work the grindstone so hard that I can’t see the wood for the trees. It makes me a better minister if I have a day off and hang out with the kids, play Scrabble, do a jigsaw and go for a walk. So I prioritise it.”