Todd Muller MP reflects on his first year in Parliament. Photo/John Borren
After a year, Todd Muller is struck by how being an MP is actually two jobs.
"You've got the job which is very much where you are out and about in the community," he says.
"But then you've a job down in Wellington that's quite different."
Parliament, he says, "is quite an insular and cloistered sort of environment, and quite pugilistic when you're in the chamber."
"Everybody's up and against each other and throwing bricks ... Some people you can see just naturally don't like that environment. They find it too intimidating. I don't find it intimidating. I enjoy it but I find myself tending to return fire with fire."
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The Bay of Plenty Times Weekend caught up with Muller in Tauranga this week and despite the casual setting of a garden centre, where he likes the cafe, he apologised for not wearing a suit, dressed instead in a sweater and warm coat, his photograph smiling from the side of his blue National Party vehicle in the carpark.
Reflective and measured in his words, the MP for Bay of Plenty spoke of his baptism to the Beehive, saying the proximity of the Opposition in Parliament is also striking.
He recalled a "particularly tough day" when he asked a question to National leader and Prime Minister John Key in the House.
"As he answered, two a person the Opposition roared their disapproval back. You can actually physically feel it. The best description is it's sort of like facing a haka, that very closed scenario when you've got a whole lot of energy being expressed towards you."
As a former Fonterra executive and Zespri general manager, Muller is no stranger to "incredibly heated environments when the payout is $3.85 or four bucks a tray", but "having to hold a view on so much" and the debating in Parliament is new - and a challenge he relishes.
"Standing up and talking for 10 minutes on the finer points of law? Those who know me would probably suggest that I've always had the capacity to fill the time."
But for all that, Muller says his natural style is more consultative than directive. "So invariably you go on a bit of a journey of changing to fit the environment without losing the essence of who you are as a person."
With experience as a staffer for former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger, Muller has found Key a professional, engaging leader and says he is impressed with the tightness of the current team.
"Previous third-term governments of any political hue would be pretty tired and ropey by the time they get here, whereas walking into that team was like walking into an executive meeting at Fonterra, where they've got a leader who is clearly the leader, supported by people who are really competent but absolutely focused on what the next job is."
In his new role Muller, a father of three, is serving on two select committees - local government and environment, for which he is deputy chair, and the social services committee. The latter has been "a huge eye-opener" and his most difficult transition in to the job.
"You're the sum of your experience and I just simply had not had exposure to some of the complex challenges that exist in New Zealand families."
He has come to the realisation that "simplistic ideology and slogans around 'just more money' or 'they just have to pull their socks up' are both inadequate responses to things which are highly complex and multigenerational and, in many cases, very dysfunctional.
"For me, I'm on a journey of discovery and understanding and I'm finding it hard because it challenges your perspective ... These conversations and reflections were not part of my front-of-mind narrative a year ago."
His political views have not been swayed, however, and he is unwavering in his support of National's "social investment model". Muller says employment is key to people's self-worth and ability to stay in control of their own lives and the Government's role is "to create the environment for them to be successful".
"Rather than the debate being 'There needs to be more money', the more effective question, the better question, is 'How can we get better outcomes for the spend?'"
In the Bay, Muller is pushing for further investment by both state and private sectors in infrastructure - roads, schools and broader amenities - to keep pace with growth.
He singles out vocational trades training, especially to support the kiwifruit industry, which is expected to grow by 4000 jobs over the next three years.
"I see my job as being an ongoing advocate for more investment in a community that is the fastest-growing in the country."
This was a childhood dream of mine actually, to be a local MP for the community that I've been brought up in and I genuinely love every day.
He believes everything is pointing in the right direction in the region, citing employment growth in the last quarter of almost 9 per cent, compared to the national average of 3 per cent. "I'd say most Bay of Plenty families are in a pretty solid space. They'll be working hard but I think they'll be seeing incremental benefit and gain because of their hard work."
He extols National's 50 per cent lift in elective surgeries for the Bay but acknowledges that migration from outside regions, including Auckland, is putting pressure on housing and while local councils have good growth plans in place, challenges include ensuring enough provision by the private sector for lower-end rentals.
Muller has moved his electorate office to Papamoa, where the majority of his electorate's constituents now live, and every third Monday he runs mobile clinics at Omokoroa and Welcome Bay to meet with locals.
Recognition from the community is increasing, particularly "having your face on the side of your car" and when we catch him between clinics Muller says he is enjoying living back in the Bay after four years in Auckland.
He and wife Michelle have bought a house at Pyes Pa and their children are attending St Mary's Catholic School and Aquinas College.
He admits balancing the role of MP with family is difficult because although his job at Fonterra was "eye-wateringly busy", the intensity and the degree of people contact is higher and more demanding now.
"Probably that's the hardest thing, ensuring that you've still got enough energy for Michelle and the kids. I'd like to say I switch the phone off, but I don't. It's just a point of tension that exists in my own mind, of actually truly being there. But in saying that, I don't suspect that's unique to being a politician."
To maintain good health, he tries to run every day he is in Wellington. "Running's what I do. Not long, just 5 or 6km. I'm slow and methodical and as long as there's not ridiculous hills, I enjoy it."
Since becoming MP, Muller has run a half-marathon, thanks partly to the prompting of a Bay of Plenty Times journalist.
"In a weak moment pre-Christmas John Cousins rang me and said, 'So, what's your plans for next year?' I found myself saying, 'I'm going to do a half-marathon', which he immediately grabbed on. So I did, I did the Tauranga half-marathon. 1.57.45," he says, quoting his time to the second.
"It was faster than the first and only other one I've done, which was 15 years earlier at Zespri."
Muller has no regrets about leaving his old life behind, saying he is keen to continue as MP for as long as he can and would like to gain a ministerial portfolio.
"This was a childhood dream of mine actually, to be a local MP for the community that I've been brought up in and I genuinely love every day."
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