Nicola Willis – Liberal to a degree

As a university student, Finance Minister Nicola Willis was all about the arts. She studied literature, acquired a taste for poetry and honed her skills in debating. What drives her now? “Better educated countries are more productive,” she said. As mission statements go, she leans to the practical rather than prose. But Willis is adamant she wants New Zealanders to enjoy better pay, job opportunities and public services, and one of the principal means for getting them is better education. What kind of education, then, does a finance minister have? In recent history, the humanities. Labour’s Michael Cullen was a historian. Bill English majored in English. Grant Robertson’s BA was focused on politics. Robert Muldoon and Roger Douglas both studied accountancy, but it’s debatable whether that gave either of them the edge in the portfolio.

Willis completed her honours degree in English literature. “The thing that really interested me was actually poetry,” she said. A favourite is Wellington poet Jenny Bornholdt, whose writing dwells on the small things of domestic life and shows how “at all times we can find beauty, ultimately, as human beings”. Would she recommend studying literature to a young person today? Willis’s advice is to do the things that bring “meaning and joy”. “Because if you love it, if you’re passionate about it, it will lead you somewhere. Doors will open and when they do open, walk through them.”

Starting from Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, a private school for girls in Karori, some special doors opened for Nicola Willis. After graduating from Victoria University, she worked for Bill English when he was opposition spokesperson for education, and then for John Key in his first term as prime minister. She then did five years with Fonterra in Auckland, initially in a government relations role. She entered Parliament in 2018 on the National Party list after the resignation of Steven Joyce.

When Judith Collins stepped down as leader of the National Party in late 2021, Christopher Luxon put himself forward and chose Willis as his deputy. Her socially liberal values were seen as balancing his more conservative side. Willis then picked up the shadow finance portfolio after Simon Bridges vacated his seat.

Following the 2023 post-election coalition negotiations, she emerged — through a very exclusive door — as the country’s new Minister of Finance. She’d confidently followed the “beautiful piece of advice” that her father once gave her: “Stop stressing out about exactly what job you’re going to do.”

One might call her career “a meteoric rise”, were it not for the awkward fact that meteors go down in flames and, sitting across from me, I didn’t see a falling star. She was dressed for a photo shoot in a faintly “socialist” pastel pink. She has a liberal track record on conscience votes, including euthanasia and abortion, and she’s pro-LGBTQ rights. In her maiden speech to the House in 2018, she talked about a “teal deal” with the Greens. Was she seated on the wrong side of the debating chamber? “No,” she replied firmly. “I believe in an individual’s right to choose, whether that’s about issues like euthanasia, issues like abortion, about how people express themselves. That’s pretty fundamental to me, those liberal values. And that finds a very welcome home in the National Party, which has a proud tradition of bringing conservative and liberal together.” To borrow from Bob Dylan, she’s liberal, but to a degree.

Willis represents values and voter-appeal that could help National to retain and build its base among women. Roy Morgan polls, which split results by gender, show that National is more popular with men than women, while, overall, National is sitting just below its last election result of 38.1 percent. Could Willis help to tip things in her party’s favour?