Nicola Willis at home: Who is National’s new deputy leader away from the spotlight?

National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis at her Wellington home with husband Duncan Small and their children, from left, Harriet, 10, Gloria, 6, James, 11, and Reuben, 8. Photo / Mark Mitchell

At home in the Wellington suburb of Karori, Nicola Willis is fresh from a significant milestone in the 40-year-old’s life.

After only three years as an MP, she has ascended to the deputy leadership of the National Party.

She also likes crunchy peanut butter not smooth, she drinks black coffee, and she’s reading The New Zealand Wars, Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa by Vincent O’Malley. When Wellington’s having one of its good days, you’ll find her walking on the Mākara or Skyline tracks with her four primary-school-aged kids.

This week Christopher Luxon was elected as the National Party’s new leader with Willis as deputy.

Willis grew up on the other side of Wellington’s harbour at Point Howard, where she spent her childhood surfing, swimming, and going on adventures in the bush.

She has a younger brother and sister. As the eldest, she tested the boundaries with her parents like the time she hosted a dinner after School C that quickly turned into a party attended by what felt like half of Wellington’s teenage population.

She was introduced to politics before she was born while her mother was working as a journalist in the press gallery with Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper.

“When I walk down the hallway on my way to work, in the press gallery there’s all the photos of each year of press gallery journalists and mum’s sitting in this photo where she’s one of very few women, and she’s very clearly pregnant with me.”

New National leader Christopher Luxon and deputy leader Nicola Willis after their caucus meeting at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Willis — married with four children — says her own life experience makes her realistic about what matters to families.

“It makes me very aware that not everyone is watching the six o’clock news with the fervent attention that those of us in Parliament are, because people have stuff going on in their lives, people are trying to get the dinner on the table, get the kids sorted out.”

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She says that’s why politicians need to make sure they’re talking about the issues that really matter to people.

For Willis, that’s housing, education, economic policy and thinking about what it’s going to take for her kids to want to stay in New Zealand and call this country home.

Over the course of her career Willis has worked as a senior adviser to John Key and as a Fonterra executive. She entered Parliament as a list MP in 2018 after Steven Joyce retired.
Willis describes herself as a moderate centrist.

She is pro-choice on euthanasia and abortion, views that differ from Luxon’s.

But she sees the different perspectives as a strength because just like in New Zealand, there are a range of views on these issues.

“That range of views deserves representation in Parliament and Chris and I respect each other and respect each other’s views. He’s also been really clear that he doesn’t intend to revisit the law in those areas.”

Willis feels a lot of gratitude for her “smart and capable” mother who sacrificed her career to raise a family.

It’s a very different scenario to the deal Willis and her husband Duncan Small have struck on family life.

The joint desire to each have a career and a family is something they’ve juggled since their first child was born.

Now a family of six, Willis is very conscious of Small’s “deliberate choice” to sacrifice further progress in what’s been a successful career for him by working part-time as a consultant.

“So that he could be more supportive of our kids and our family,” Willis says.

“That’s been really important for making our family work and for allowing me to do this job.”

Small has recognised for some years now that politics is something Willis needed to pursue, to do what really drives her.

“We’ve sort of been tooling the arrangements back to the point where she can really have at that. That’s meant that I’ve had to do a bit less work… and make sure that the kids have the kind of consistency and the reliability that they need. But yeah, we manage to make that work.

“And so now with Nicola going into a bigger job, I think we feel comfortable that we’ve got the arrangements right.”

National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis with husband Duncan Small. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Small has become a whiz at “incredible” school lunches, which he disputes but Willis says is something the teachers will confirm.

He often drops the kids to school and picks them up, he navigates his children’s full calendar of events, extracurricular activities, and friendships.

“I’m getting better at logistics”, Small jokes.

Living in Wellington has allowed the family to be close to Parliament so Willis can still do some school drop-offs, come home in between events, and tuck her kids in at night when she can.

Willis and Small met through debating club at Victoria University.

To Willis, Small was charismatic and handsome, with a real presence when he walked into a room. He also looked a bit “geeky” with jeans that were a few inches too short, in her opinion.

To Small, Willis was cool, feisty, determined and energetic.

Who pursued who? Small says he probably didn’t get his act together as quickly as he should have.

But Willis and her friends were running a “military operation” behind his back, Small says.

“It’s fair to say that I made a decision that I’d like to be his girlfriend”, Willis says.

“I had some very supportive friends who thought Duncan and I would be a great match and who helped make that happen.”

Nicola Willis. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Willis went on to study journalism at Canterbury University and Small went to Canberra to do a master’s degree. They continued their relationship, despite the long distance.

As Small puts it, “one thing led to another” and the pair will have been married for 15 years in February.

They try to have a family movie night once a week and in the “hypothetical” situation where they have time for just the two of them, they would go out for dinner and maybe to see a play.

Willis’ parents have a bach at Riversdale Beach, where she has been going since she was a young girl and now her children go there too.

The family is heading there again after Christmas. Willis will take some time to decompress over the summer period but she’s quick to say that she and Luxon will also be planning and talking strategy for the year ahead.

Small interjects – “It’s good that’s on the record that she’s planning to take some time off”.

“As your job gets busier you’ve got to be more disciplined on holding that [family] time, right? That’s the challenge.”