Brooke van Velden, the deputy leader of the Act Party, is retiring from politics.
A visibly emotional van Velden held a surprise press conference at Parliament on Tuesday where she announced she would not stand in the upcoming election.
“I simply want to do more in life,” she said.
“It’s no secret the job is 24/7 and I think what I am going to enjoy is having a couple of weekends back.”
She wanted more time to dedicate to other ventures and was eyeing the private sector with a potential return to politics in a couple of decades. She had few regrets, she told reporters, and stood “hand on heart” by her policy decisions, including her contentious pay equity reforms.
Van Velden’s departure opens up the race for the Auckland Tāmaki electorate, the long-held National Party seat she won at the last election.
She insisted there was nothing unsaid behind her departure – she wasn’t particularly burnt out or suffering from the scrutiny that comes with being a public figure (“you have to take a woman for her word”).
She had made a “concrete” decision to retire before Christmas.
“That is very firm in my mind that I am making the best decision for me. It was the catalyst of can I commit to the next four years and ultimately, I can commit to a year, but thinking about the next four years, I couldn’t hand on heart commit to four extra years.”
She said the easy option would be to stay on “but I also ultimately want to live life and see what other opportunities are out there”.
Van Velden said at one point she received “quite a threatening message to the extent that the police also deemed it to be quite threatening and became involved”.
“Ultimately, the end of this was, I thought, a huge win. This person who ultimately thought they had a lot of power online was shamed [told off] by their mother [for sending van Velden the message].
“They lived at home with their mother but were sat down by the police in the lounge with mum present and told off by the police. And I can’t think of anything that is probably more shameful than that.”
Van Velden’s most contentious policy this term, her changes to pay equity legislation that cancelled many equal pay claims, was rushed through Parliament under urgency and prompted large protests.
From that era, she will be remembered for saying “c***” in Parliament in response to questioning over a columnist using the word against her and some of her female colleagues over pay equity changes.
“I am proud of all of the decisions I have needed to make in Government. I hand on heart believe that the decisions that I made and the actions that I took were in the best interests of the country and ultimately I saved the Budget.
“There are always going to be people who have an emotional reaction to the work that I do or some of the work that Government does but ultimately I hand on heart believe at every step of the process in my time in this term I have made decisions that I believe were in the best interests of New Zealanders.”
The 33-year-old hinted at a potential return to politics in the future.
“If I think about some of the other colleagues I have in Parliament, if I came back in 20 years, I would be in my 50s, which is when a lot of people enter Parliament for the first time.”
Van Velden was Act’s deputy for almost six years. In terms of her replacement, Act leader David Seymour said the party had “a lot of talent” and there would be a collegial selection process.
The next deputy would be announced at the party’s AGM. Seymour would not be publicising his preference and a new candidate for the Tāmaki Auckland seat would also be selected.
He said van Velden’s work on reforming the Holidays Act might be her “greatest gift” to Kiwis. The pair had several phone calls over the matter, which included him trying to change her mind, but she was resolute in the decision.
Seymour said van Velden had enjoyed a political career as near “perfect” as possible, and while he was losing a colleague, he would keep a “lifelong friend”.
“Now she is going on her terms,” he said.
Van Velden said being a politician and being a public figure was not an easy life, but said she could have continued doing it if she had wanted to.
Asked about her knowledge of te ao Māori, van Velden said her experiences in politics were “eye-opening” in general.
One of the “great privileges” of her time in politics was being welcomed on to the marae at Waitangi and the warmth displayed to her.