On the Record: Simon Bridges

Without sounding like a bit of a "weirdo", Simon Bridges is a bit of an introvert.
And without sounding like a bit of a "sissy", he quite likes fussing over home interiors.
He does the dishes, lawns, rubbish and laundry - admitting he's ruined dresses of wife Natalie in the process - and prefers to read - mostly autobiographies and three or four at a time - than watch television.
Many things aren't known about Simon Bridges the MP, despite him unintentionally building up "a bit of a persona" through the media in the past three years since entering Parliament as a young gun.
His mum keeps a scrapbook of his media encounters and he says: "You build up an image even though that might not be what you think."
So what is Simon Bridges' image?
Today at Mount Maunganui Beach, he's looks like any other sun seeker. He's in shorts and a T-shirt and kicks off his jandals so his toes can massage the sand. He's polite, impeccably mannered and happy to talk.
I've known Bridges for a while and he always takes a genuine interest in you. He's thoughtful. He ponders answers to questions and, for someone trekking his way to political greatness, Bridges is a pretty down-to-earth Kiwi bloke.
He loves going out and being part of the community but the truth is an "ideal night" isn't going out but staying at home in Mount Maunganui.
"Without sounding like a weirdo," he laughs. "I'm actually a bit of an introvert. This makes me sound about 50. But you've got to be quite sort of sensible and mature because people are watching and making assessments about you."
He continues: "Natalie is reading [former British Prime Minister] Tony Blair's autobiography and, well, he was prime minister and I'm an MP, but he got to the point he was thinking about everything he did. You've got to live your life and if you need to pick your teeth, you need to pick your teeth. If Natalie and I have a disagreement at a restaurant, we have a disagreement. People think of me as outgoing but I'm quite an academic."
And he certainly is. He was head boy at Rutherford College in Waitakare, became a Crown prosecutor at 24 and completed a masters degree at Oxford University.
So what does an academic do for fun?
Bridges, who is sitting cross-legged, hands buried in sand, says his hobbies are placing podcasts on his iPod and he runs - "It makes me feel good."
He also likes to stick his nose in political biographies. He likes to see how other politicians dealt with "the big things".
"Because nothing is really new," he says. "Everything sort of comes around. I like stories about people who have fought for a cause and perhaps been a bit single-minded and obsessive about it."
He cites British politician William Wilberforce, leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade, as one example.
THAT sounds a bit boring to me but then politics is not my thing. For Bridges, politics is more than a job. "Today we can kind of think obsessive and academic as kind of a weird thing. You need to chill out and have a balanced life," Bridges says. "I'm a bit of a perfectionist and that can be infuriating to my wife. If I'm working on something that night, I've got to see it through. If I start something, I need to finish it."
Examples? Bridges says the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill, which he personally battled to get through Parliament. The bill has resulted in the penalties for animal cruelty being dramatically increased.
Bridges will also pick up on individual cases if they touch him - Joe Public "who needs a champion behind the scenes".
His confidant in life and politics, is Natalie, 28. "We're very, very close and we would talk over a dozen times a day," Bridges says. "If you asked me who my adviser is, it's probably Natalie. She often reins me in. I suppose we are both ambitious for each other."
The Bridges, regular fodder for society pages, also have the same tastes and values. "I've always been quite political but she's much more interested in it now," he says. "I'm much more into stuff she's been into. It probably sounds a bit sissy but I like home interiors ... I've rubbed off on her and she's rubbed off on me."
I think that's kind of cute and I say so.
Asked to describe their house, he says: "Some would say 'quite cluttered' and we've got quite different stuff from Oriental cabinets to modern and traditional furniture."
He says he's become a "much better husband than I was at the start".
"I think I'm more understanding and probably pull my weight more," he says with a knowing grin.
"We have definite kind of roles. Natalie does more of the creative things: food ... and what happens in the home. I do the routine stuff: laundry - I've ruined a few dresses in the process - dishes, lawns. Before [marriage] it was that sort of flatting thing."
They have two dogs - Bruce the pomeranian and Tilly the tibetan spaniel.
It's "on the plans" to start a family one day but Bridges says it would be unfair on Natalie's new employers at Village Public Relations in Mount Maunganui to do anything too soon.
"I'm the youngest of six and it won't be that many," he says.
I suggest it could be useful on the campaign trail later though? He laughs.
Growing up in Te Atatu, the youngest of those six children - the eldest is 14 years older than him - his father, who is part-Maori, was a Baptist minister, his mother a primary school teacher.
Politics wasn't an obvious career path.
Bridges contemplated being all manner of things at school; from conductor of a symphony orchestra to a talkback host on radio. In the end, "Dad kinda pushed me into law. I don't think he'd mind me saying that."
But it turned out to be a good thing, he said.
I ask Bridges if he wants to be prime minister. I ask three times because he won't say "yes" or "no". I ask a fourth time when I phone him several days later.
"I thought I ducked that question," he says. "Not specific ambitions. You can never tell what politics can throw forward."
He continues: "I definitely want to get into Cabinet. The higher you can go, the more you can do."
What portfolio would he have?
He says he'd naturally find it easier, with his legal background, to go into justice or police.
But adds: "It's the leader of a party who chooses what you get."
He also has youth on his side.
I ask him about Prime Minister John Key and how often they hang out. He says only at social functions and every week when Parliament is sitting. "It's really rare I would talk to him one on one." He jokes that statement could ruin his "street cred".
"If there is something I wanted to talk to him about, I could. He's a busy guy. I don't ring him up to see what tie I should wear."
But Bridges wins praise from the top when I contact Key.
The Prime Minister says Bridges has a big future ahead of him. "Like all backbench MPs, he knows attaining a Cabinet position means putting in a lot of spade work and I believe he's got the energy, diligence and intelligence to achieve highly. Especially given this is his first term. I think Simon's put in a sterling performance."
BRIDGES says: "This [life as an MP] is better than I thought it would be. When I was deciding whether to really go for it and take over Bob Clarkson ... I prepared myself for the worst and it's a lot more fulfilling than I thought it would be."
There's no performance review but his gut feeling is "it's going really, really well".
"So far, it's much more positive than being a criminal lawyer when you are constantly dealing with really tragic, grimy, negative stuff".
Tauranga residents are on the whole though "quite nice", he says. "Even if they think [something negative about you] they're probably very polite."
Bridges knocks on doors but says politicians have "gotta try and resist" going in for a cuppa. "The family albums come out and it's all over. It's kinda strange to just rock up to people's doors and I really don't - and this might sound funny - but I'm not good at confrontation.
"In court, you get overt conflict but you understand what it's about and you're kind of playing a game. But I'm not very confident."
A random doorknock is for Bridges "putting yourself on the line. I always stand a bit back from the door in case they run at me".
WHAT'S his view on Winston Peters?
"During the 2008 campaign, I wanted to respect him. He was Tauranga's MP for a long time. He's done some good things but he's got a mixed record. I still have a sense of respect, of sorts, for him."
I want to know how many hours Bridges puts in as an MP every week. I ring Natalie.
"Oh God," she says on the phone. "Who knows? It would be an awful lot. He gets up at 6am and he goes to bed at 10pm. Apart from a run, and eating his food, the first thing he does when he opens his eyes in the morning is look at his emails. So while I'm still asleep, he's in bed doing his emails - and that's on the weekends.
"If you want to work 24 hours a day, you can. I sometimes have to intervene and say, 'You need to pull back and have a day off'."
But Bridges has always been overly committed. That's just his personality.
"When we met at Oxford, he was crazy into his work, when he was in law, he was totally into his work ... he told me when he went into politics, it wouldn't be as busy but it's even more.
"Some people like boating, some people like fishing, he likes politics ... it's quite addictive."
Natalie and Simon met at Oxford when he was doing his masters in law and she a masters in poetry of the Romantic period.
They married in 2005 then moved to New Zealand but Natalie has divided her time between Tauranga and Auckland for almost four years now, having worked as editor of Simply You magazine. She is moving to Tauranga
fulltime this month, having obtained a job as director of the Village Public Relations lifestyle division. "It's pretty much what I'm doing now but I won't be doing a magazine."
Natalie can't wait to get back to Tauranga. She talks fast, and passionately, over the phone - about politics and Simon. She's hoping they will resurrect their Sunday "movie night" and she loves to cook, adding Simon makes "more mess than it's worth".
What about those ruined dresses? She laughs and says she's selective about what she puts in the washing basket now. "He does everything on the hottest wash and that's it."
They have held their relationship together because how could you not, she says, when you're such "good mates"?
"We get on really well as friends too, and I was interested in politics, but now I'm really interested in politics, and I don't know how a couple would survive if one didn't, because it takes over your entire existence.
"He is a perfectionist sometimes, so that can be quite infuriating but, by the same token, it's something I really love about him. He likes to get everything right. I admire that and I admire his ambition and desire to go ahead and succeed."