Paula Bennett is doing a great job of juggling numerous jobs during a tough two years. Photo / Babiche Martens
Former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett reveals the wake-up call that has changed everything.
It’s just as well Paula Bennett has 15 years of political experience up her sleeve because at the moment, she’s doing a great job of juggling numerous jobs during a tough two years caring for her elderly parents.
Last year, her father Bob died and her mother Lee has just moved into a care home after a month-long stay in hospital.
“I feel like I’ve got three or four fulltime jobs and I’m trying to spend quite a bit of time with my mum as well,” she says. “But I have a saying I live by which is ‘be where your feet are’.
“I’m quite good at being in the moment, so if I commit to something, I will give it 100%.”
Bennett’s feet are firmly planted in her successful NZ Herald podcast Ask Me Anything, which is into its sixth season. She also works for Bayleys Realty Group in the commercial area as a director and strategic advisor, and she recently took on the role as chair of Pharmac. She is also a trustee for Sea Cleaners, which sends boats into waterways, cleaning rubbish out of our harbours and oceans.
“My partner Alan [Philps] and I have a blended family with our kids, and we always say, ‘We don’t do half, we don’t do step, we do 100%’ and that’s how I feel about my work.”
At the time of our interview, Bennett is taking a break in Tauranga, staying at a friend’s bach, while Sea Cleaners launches a new boat in the area. She’s a keen angler but was happy to let everyone else go fishing while she catches up on reading for her podcast.
“I have two books to read for guests coming up and that’s the best part of doing the podcast. I’m a big reader.”
Listening to Bennett behind the microphone is a rewarding process. She is relaxed, chatty, a good interviewer, full of energy and obviously having the time of her life.
“I get to talk to some really interesting people and I find them fascinating because I’ve learned so much from all of them,” she tells. “It’s influencing my life. Someone said to me this morning, ‘You must feel so lucky’ and I heard myself say right back, ‘No, I’m not, you make your luck,’ and I realised I was channelling Dame Julie Christie who was one of my guests!”
Another guest who has had a huge impact on her is actor Robyn Malcolm.
“I was a little apprehensive talking to her because she’s been an activist for the Green Party and our politics are so different. But as we talked, we found some common ground between two women, around the same age, who share similar interests, and can still have different politics and treat each other with respect, and actually come out of it with a hug and having enjoyed each other’s company.”
Bennett has just signed up for two more seasons of her podcast and will do 35 shows this year, something her younger self would be proud of.
“When I was at school, I thought I might become a DJ, and I remember being the chosen one to go and get the local MP to come to our class to speak to us. He asked me what I thought I’d do when I grew up and I told him I might go into radio. Then I went and got knocked up and went on the benefit. And that didn’t work out.”
Now she’s a podcaster, she likes the fact by the end of each show, “pretty much everyone says they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had a good time, and that’s what you want”.
She also makes sure she doesn’t rabbit on too much with her podcast.
“I live on Te Atatū Peninsula [in West Auckland], so I try and think of it as lasting a car ride into town,” she explains. “Sometimes you look at a podcast and it’s an hour and 10 minutes long, and you just don’t have the time for that.”
At 55, Bennett, like many her age, is spending a lot of time with her mother Lee, who is 86.
“We lost Dad last year, which was terrible, and then Mum was fine living independently until about three months ago. She got sick this year and was in hospital for a month. She said she never wanted to go into a care home, but she’s coping well and I visit her most days.
“She knew she couldn’t go home but thought it would be nice to stay in the hospital because she had made friends with the other women and their families, and they all got on so well.
“We’ve been told several times that she only had 24 to 48 hours left and then she bounced back. And she keeps on rocking on.”
Bennett says she feels grateful to be having this time with her mum.
“When you think she could be gone in a matter of hours, then every day, every week and every month, you feel genuinely privileged to have the time to spend with her.”
Recently, she had the task of clearing out her mother’s home, which she found a very emotional exercise.
She has adopted Lee’s dog Heidi, who gets on well with her own dog Charli, a black labrador. The former Deputy Prime Minister also now has more Royal Doulton china than she knows what to do with.
“It’s been hard and sometimes I need to be in the right emotional space to be going through all those memories of my parents’ lives,” she admits. “My brother Marc passed away in 1991 and I came across about 450 sympathy cards that Mum had kept.”
Bennett is obviously still deeply moved by that moment and says it reminded her that death is part of life.
“I was taken back to a lot of places and a lot of memories.”
Having already come through a tough year and now in the middle of another one, her most recent job appointment as head of Pharmac in May satisfies her interest in public service.
“I felt like I still had something in me that was public service-focused. With the experience I’ve had in government as an MP and even as a younger woman, there is a unique set of skills there that not a lot of people in New Zealand actually have.
“I was asking myself how I was going to use that skill and then I had a momentary lapse of judgement after my third glass of wine, where I even contemplated being the Mayor of Auckland!
“Then I woke up the next day and realised I was obviously going through an episode. But I did sit back and ask myself where that came from.”
When the Pharmac chair position came up, she immediately saw it as a way to use the patient advocacy skills she developed as an MP and knew she could make a difference.
“I did speak to some well-known people, who I’ve been known to go to for advice, and they just said, ‘You’re mad – go and do something easy,’” she laughs.
She says some people have asked her if she can fix Pharmac, but she says she’s not there to fix it, she’s there to make it better.
“I’m a change agent, so getting in and getting it more patient-focused, really digging into the language used and the fact that as an organisation, it had become quite defensive and put up walls. With respect to them, that’s because they’re having to say no more than they’re able to say yes, because they just simply don’t have the money for it.”
Having those hard conversations doesn’t bother her.
“I can sit in front of people suffering the worst illnesses and who are struggling to get access to treatment, and while we can’t fix their problems, at least we can listen, and try to implement systems and improvements in the future.”
There are massive challenges coming for Pharmac with the emergence of new medicines, she says.
“If you think about the different cancer treatments now – where you don’t blast someone with chemo – those new treatments are expensive and individual, and I’m not sure how the world is going to cope with that.”
As she heads towards the end of the year, Bennett knows she has a busy life but she feels she has achieved a nice balance.
“I have the fun and free form of the podcast,” she enthuses. “I’ve got something that’s pretty intense chairing Pharmac and then I’ve got Bayleys, which is commercial. I’ve spent four years there and if I wasn’t enjoying it,I wouldn’t do it.
“The ex-chairman and founder of Bayleys told me he worries about me being too busy, and I said, ‘To be fair, I don’t have to do anything. I don’t have to be at Bayleys. I don’t have to chair Pharmac. I don’t have to do the podcast. I choose this life and I choose what I do. And, actually, the balance of all of that is fun!’”
You can listen to Paula’s podcast Ask Me Anything on streaming platforms and the NZ Herald.
Hair & Make-up: Jaz Garner. Styling: Angela Stone. Paula wears farmers, Tuesday. Location: Swiss-Belsuites Victoria Park, Auckland.
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