Clark's No 2 piecing together a government

Prime Minister Helen Clark and her chief of staff, Heather Simpson, at a conference in Melbourne earlier this year. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have happily posed for a series of photos in the Prime Minister's suite as a succession of small parties leaders over the past few weeks have traipsed through to talk with them on the shape of the Government.

Always ready for them as they are ushered into the back office is Clark's chief of staff, camera-shy Heather Simpson, the less visible member of the powerful triumvirate that runs the Government.

She is a 52-year-old, rusty-haired, sports-mad Southlander, occasional sax player who is much more than Clark's right-hand woman with her boss's total confidence and trust. She is her proxy.

She is the woman who has been conducting the negotiations for putting a Government together since the elections on September 17. She will also undoubtedly be helping to reconstruct the Cabinet.

Simpson has had no equivalent in previous Governments - at least not bundled up in the one person. Her jobs are usually found in several people.

For the past six years Labour has led a minority Government and, between elections, Simpson has been responsible for consultation with support parties.

She also oversees policy development and strategic direction and regularly meets political advisers.

And where there's trouble in Government you'll find Simpson. Clark has the reputation of closely following ministers. She does that through Simpson. If there are major problem areas, say the Foreshore and Seabed court decision, or the spending at tertiary institutions, or 111 systems, or funding of wananga, she will take close interest.

She knows of everything going through the Cabinet and attempts to remove the knotty problems at Cabinet committee stage.

While she is held in awe by many in the party, one former colleague is reported as saying she likes people to be afraid of her, but doesn't respect anyone who is.

When Cullen's original plan to settle the foreshore and seabed conundrum included plans for Maori co-management of the foreshore, it was Simpson's job to cut Cullen's ideas back to size.

Simpson is the woman ex-MP John Tamihere described in Investigate magazine as "a butch", his term for a lesbian.

She is a shortish woman with a big stride who always appears to be in a hurry around parliamentary corridors, whether it is to get away from the curious eyes of the media or Opposition, or simply because she has so much to do.

These past few weeks the agenda has been full. Between meetings of leaders, she has held numerous meetings with her counterparts from other parties: Deb Moran from the Greens, Graham Harding from New Zealand First, Rob Eaddy from United Future and Maori Party political adviser Ken Mair.

She is said to have a no-nonsense approach, to be direct and amiable, and by those who know her, to have a dry sense of humour.

Colleagues say she doesn't waste precious time on small talk - unless its on things like the All Black selection, Super 12, the NPC latest - and especially her beloved Southland Stags.

Her association with Clark goes back to the Fourth Labour Government when Clark held the Housing, Conservation and Health portfolios. A former economics lecturer at Otago University, Simpson also worked as policy adviser to Mike Moore as Opposition Leader.

The Simpson files

* Second most powerful woman in New Zealand politics.

* First worked as policy adviser for Helen Clark in 1987.

* Often referred to as H2.

* Stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1987 Awarua, and Heretaunga 1993.

* Mad about rugby