Photos: Babiche Martens.
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 passed away and her mother Lee has just moved into a care home following a month-long stay in hospital.
“I feel like I’ve got three or four full-time 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 percent.”
Paula’s feet are firmly planted in her very successful 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 harbours and oceans.
“My partner Alan [Philps] and I have a blended family with our kids. We always say, ‘We don’t do half, we don’t do step, we do 100 percent’. That’s how I feel about my work, too.”
At the time of our interview, Paula is taking a break in Tauranga. She’s 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 Paula 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’. I heard myself say right back, ‘No, I’m not, you make your luck’. I later 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.”
Paula has just signed up for two more seasons of her podcast. She will do 35 shows this year, which is something her younger self would be very proud of.
She recalls, “When I was at school, I thought I might become a DJ. I remember a teacher choosing me 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 that she’s a podcaster, Paula likes the fact that 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”.
Paula 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. You often just don’t have the time for that.”
At 55, Paula, 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. Then Mum was fine living independently until about three months ago,” she shares. “She got sick this year and was in hospital for a month. Mum said she never wanted to go into a care home. She’s coping well though, and I visit her most days.
“She knew she couldn’t go home but thought it would be nice to stay in the hospital. She had made friends with the other women and their families, and they all got on so well.
“Doctors have told us several times that she only had 24 to 48 hours left and then she bounced back. And she keeps on rocking on.”
Paula says she feels very 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, Paula 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. 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.”
Paula obviously still feels deeply moved by that moment and says it reminded her that death is part of life.
“It took me 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, Paula’s 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,” she tells. “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. Then, I had a momentary lapse of judgement after my third glass of wine. 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, Paula immediately saw it as a way to use the patient advocacy skills she developed as an MP and knew that she could make a difference.
“I did speak to some well-known people, who I’ve been known to go to for advice. They just said, ‘You’re mad – go and do something easy,’” she laughs.
Paula says some people have asked her if she can fix Pharmac. However, 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.”
Paula says having those hard conversations don’t bother her.
“I can sit in front of people suffering the worst illnesses and who are struggling to get access to treatment. 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, Paula knows she has a busy life. However, 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. My response was, ‘To be fair, I don’t have to do anything. I don’t have to be at Bayleys, to chair Pharmac, or 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.
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