It's a family that is 100 per cent behind Monique's desire to represent her home town on the district council. There's husband Grenville, and sons Aiden (10), Dan (8) and Levi (6).
''They are absolutely 100 per cent supportive of me and screamed the phone down when I told them I was in. They call me councillor mummy now and are just so supportive of what I'm doing. They are telling me the things they want to see achieved in our community as well, because they are very vocal about the things we need and the things we don't need.
"It's really good to have that engagement of the youth quite early on - there could be an up and coming councillor among them.''
Monique says she wants to thank the community for believing in her and supporting her in her quest.
''The whole reason for me putting myself out there was for the community,'' she says.
''Now I feel really empowered that they have elected me and I'm going to give it a bloody good shot.''
She says knowing about the support the whole family had during the election process convinced her she was doing the right thing whenever she had any doubts.
''I've just been completely nervous because I am always behind the scenes - I hate pushing myself out there in the public eye, but I also like to get things done.'' She says she found it unbelievable to top the voting, saying it ''blew my mind''.
Monique has been heavily involved in the community as a volunteer. As far as possible that will continue, although she might need to learn to delegate more.
Initial results were announced on Saturday and Monique says she woke up Sunday morning half expecting her victory to have been a dream.
She also referred to the entirely new, and much more diverse, Te Puke community board.
"There are big changes, but good changes. The community has spoken. It's really reassuring," she says.
She says she feels people voted for her because she represented change from a council many felt detached from.
"A lot of the feedback we were getting was 'the council doesn't care about us'. We lost count of the number of people who said they were voting for the first time because there were more people to choose from this year.
"I suppose part of my advocating for the community is to have that voice heard, to have someone under the age of 50."
Helping form the new council with fellow newcomers Anne Henry and Christina Humphreys from Katikati, and existing councillor Murray-Benge, from the Kaimai ward, says Monique, is fantastic.
"Now we have four females on Western Bay of Plenty District Council from last year when there was only one. That's absolutely incredible."
Three of the previous four councillors in the Te Puke-Maketū were re-elected, Mike Lally being the one to miss out.
John Scrimgeour says he believes the district council and community board election results are good for the community.
''Te Puke is in quite a strong position. I think it's panned out well and we will see how it develops going forward.''
Kevin Marsh said he welcomed the diversity of other ward councillors and community board.
''Now we need to work together as a team to ensure the best outcomes for the Te Puke and district people.''
He says one of his priorities for the next triennium is to see more tar sealing of rural roads.
Grant Dally says he had received more votes than he did three years ago.
''So I am quite pleased with that.''
He says he, too, is pleased with the make up of the community board and about Monique winning a seat.
''I feel those things will lead to much better outcomes for Te Puke in terms of what we can do with the community board
''I'm pleased we have got an enthusiastic and diverse group of people and I'm looking forward to working with the new community board.''
He says he is looking forward to the scheduled district plan review, would like to see regular meetings of ward members prior to council meetings to hopefully present unity, and to get more feedback from the district's rural areas.
