'Be true to yourself. Be true to your beliefs,' says new minister

Clayton Cosgrove

Five new young Cabinet ministers were appointed after the election. Political editor Audrey Young spoke to them about their portfolios, their Labour heritage and their views on Waitangi Day. This interview with Clayton Cosgrove is the first of the series.

What are the most pressing issues facing your portfolios?

As Minister for Building Issues, the whole realignment of the building sector, the whole weather tightness issue, especially for Auckland, and realigning the whole building sector so we have quality and we get the cowboys out of the system.

There are some very, very good people in the building sector but there are also some who have acted inappropriately.

So we are working with the industry to swing around building codes, strengthening the Building Act, all of those sorts of things.

As Associate Minister of Immigration, do you have to do all that ghastly individual case work?

I wouldn't say it was ghastly but yes, there is a huge flow of cases. It's one of the few portfolios where you do have absolute discretion and obviously I am conscious of the fact that people want to see the right people getting into the country - those who are filling skills and contributing to our nation. But they also want to know we are removing people from our border and preventing people from coming in that are inappropriate.

You also deal with the heart-wrenching cases. Part of my job is I'm charged with protecting the Kiwi border but also attempting to be humanitarian where appropriate.

What do you do as Associate Finance Minister?

In conjunction with the Minister of State Owned Enterprises [Trevor Mallard], I take a lot of Michael Cullen's responsibilities in respect of state-owned enterprises and crown research institutes, working with those organisations to get more value out of them for the taxpayer, and looking at their statements of corporate intent and their business statements to ensure they are aligned with where the Government wants to be.

And what do you do as Associate Justice Minister?

I'm in charge of commercial and property law and also [the portfolio as it relates to] international money-laundering and terrorism money-laundering.

How different has life become now you're a minister?

The work is about 10-fold. The hours are a lot longer and you have to be a lot more disciplined. You can't put things off. You've got to make decisions. But I'm mindful that I'm a constituency MP and that's the sort of sixth portfolio.

Who do you get your most valuable advice from?

A range of people. When I was just simply a constituency MP, I think you struggle as a politician keeping in touch with stakeholder groups. So I used to have a little group of people around the country in my electorate, a few doctors, business people, a few teachers, a few nurses, a few freezing workers, and they would feed back to you. I have increased that circle of people. I ensure I get out of the office enough to talk to stakeholders. What I'm trying to do is to make sure the gap is closing between theory and practical implementation.

Who do you think is more powerful, the politicians, the press or the public service?

The people are the most powerful because they are the biggest sanction on you. But it depends how you handle public servants. They can be awfully powerful if you just rubber stamp everything that comes through the door. If you are prepared to contest it and have it checked and get outside input then I think there's a good balance.

Who was the biggest political influence on you before you got to Parliament?

Mike Moore and my parents actually. Instead of getting a life like my mates at secondary school I joined the Labour Party at 14. Mike was and still is a great friend and a person who as a 14-year-old treated me like an adult and exposed me to what is politics and I will always respect him and am indebted to him for that. I worked for him a number of years in various capacities and started my own business, then went into the private sector, got a couple degrees, and then he asked me, when he became World Trade Organisation director, if I'd have a go.

Who was the most successful Labour leader, apart from Helen Clark, and why?

Well along with Helen Clark my Labour heroes are [Michael Joseph] Savage and Norman Kirk, both of whom had different electoral success but massive public appeal and equally Helen who has had not only incredible electoral success but still has incredible public appeal. I think people like the Prime Minister when she's tough, equally there's a softer side to her that people warm to when they get the chance to interact with her.

Is there a foreign political figure who has influenced or inspired you?

I look at some of the Aussie politicians actually. I lived in Australia for a time. You look at people like Paul Keating and Bob Hawke [former Labor Prime Ministers] who made a substantial change and were tough fighters for what they believed in. And Willy Brandt [German Chancellor 1969 to 1974] was an immense human being. Lyndon Johnson was also an interesting guy who got a hell of a lot done through sheer force of personality.

What was the last private member's bill you had in the ballot?

The anti-boy racing bill that was then adopted as a Government bill and pushed through.

What advice would you give a backbench MP aiming to get into Cabinet?

Be true to yourself. Be true to your beliefs. Don't make the mistakes I've made and there have been plenty. Don't believe your own bull. If everybody is opening doors for you and it's "minister this and minister that" all airs and graces and no door is closed to you and everybody will meet you, you can live in a fantasy land. Do you look forward to Waitangi Day?

Yeah, I do but I think sadly the day has become what it shouldn't be. It has become a day of conflict. Can it be restored? I think it can. But we have to look forward rather than constantly looking back. We are very, very hard on ourselves as a country.

Clayton Cosgrove

* Age: 36

* Portfolios: Building issues, statistics, associate finance, associate immigration, associate justice

* Family: has a long-term partner

* Work history: former advisor to former Labour leader Mike Moore, former communications manager, followed Moore in Waimakariri in 1999, former chairman of finance and expenditure committee.