Bennett contrast to English

With a karaoke machine in her Beehive office, the new deputy prime minister will provide some contrast to the self-described boringness of Bill English.

Paula Bennett. Photo: NZ Herald
Paula Bennett. Photo: NZ Herald

Paula Bennett will be confirmed as deputy prime minister today.

Part of her appeal is the balance she will provide to National's new leadership.

While new Prime Minister Bill English is a Pakeha farmer from Southland who is now based in Wellington, Bennett is part-Maori and represents the rapidly growing Upper Harbour electorate in Auckland.

Mrs Bennett grew up near Taupo, where her father ran the village store by the lake in Kinloch and her mother, Lee, was a librarian.

Given a sewing machine for her 16th birthday Mrs Bennett traded it for a motorcycle and left home the same year, going on the domestic purposes benefit.

She had her first child, Ana, aged 17. Two years later Mrs Bennett bought her first home in Taupo for $56,000 with the help of a Housing Corporation grant.

In 1991, she lost her brother, Mark, in a diving accident on an oil rig in Indonesia, her best friend was killed in a motorcycle accident, she broke up with her long-term boyfriend, and was fired from her job as a receptionist at a hair salon.

After moving to Auckland for a fresh start, including work as a nurse aide at a rest-home in Albany, she went to university where a taste of student politics eventually led to the National Party.

Mrs Bennett won the seat of Waitakere at the second attempt in 2008.

Her ``Westie'' image was a feature of early media profiles, and she made headlines in 2009 after wading into a maul of teenagers outside West City in Henderson.

She was appointed as Social Development Minister in just her second term in Parliament.

She clashed in the debating chamber with one of Labour's rising stars in Jacinda Ardern, including one exchange when Mrs Bennett told Ms Adern to "zip it, sweetie''.

That combative streak has given way to a more positive style as Mrs Bennett made her second big leap as MP, with her promotion to two of the trickiest portfolios in Parliament: social housing and climate change.

Seen by colleagues as a strong communicator, her often bubbly demeanour contrasts with the more reserved style of Mr English, who once described himself as "specialising in being boring''.

The two have worked closely together, particularly since Mrs Bennett was made Associate Finance Minister. That has included Mr English's "social investment'' work, which cuts across major portfolios and aims to use a powerful government database to funnel money to initiatives that are proven to work.

Mrs Bennett is the most senior woman in Cabinet, and was strongly backed by John Key after her press secretary told a journalist about a police investigation into Te Puea Marae chairman Hurimoana Dennis.

There was speculation she could challenge Mr English, along with Judith Collins and Jonathan Coleman, but she instead declared for the deputy role and has now won that over Transport Minister Simon Bridges.

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