In practice debates before previous New Zealand elections, Nicola Willis used to play the role of formidable female politicians.
She acted the parts of Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern when preparing the leaders of her National Party for their head-to-head clashes during the 2008 and 2017 campaigns.Should right-leaning National win the Oct. 14 vote, which opinion polls say is likely, Willis will become the nation’s first female finance minister in 30 years and just the second in its history.
There’s no playing stand-in parts for Willis these days. As National’s deputy leader and finance spokesperson, the 42-year-old mother of four is front and center in the party’s election campaign alongside leader Christopher Luxon.Rising in the polls, National appears on track to oust Labour and form a government with the support of the right-wing ACT Party.
After university, Willis took a job with the National Party as a researcher. She worked for Bill English, who was opposition education spokesman at the time, before moving to John Key’s office as a senior adviser in 2008, when he defeated Clark to become prime minister. “My great-great-grandfather voted yes to women getting the vote,” she said in her maiden speech to parliament. “Today, I follow in his feminist footsteps.”
“Sometimes people compare her and me in a pejorative way on the basis that because we share the same gender I will necessarily make the same policy decisions that she did,” Willis said. “I utterly reject that. She made her decisions in her time, 30 years ago.”
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