Courts minister Nicole McKee is the aunty of the Act Party.<\/p>\n
Here at old school sports bar The Realm, her local watering hole in Wellington, associate justice minister Nicole McKee and I sit under the glow of rugby league re-runs on the telly. A local of the capital\u2019s Hataitai suburb for 26 years, McKee has a memory for just about every corner of this bar: that\u2019s the spot she squeezed into to watch the last Rugby World Cup at 3am; that outdoor area is where her son\u2019s high school brass band used to play to punters; those snooker tables have seen a wild argument or two. She looks at home pouring her 745ml bottle of Speights into a glass, and when she gets to talking about her mahi, she flashes a wicked grin: \u201cGuns, booze, dirty money: that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n
You\u2019re probably most familiar with McKee as that firearms lady, the lobbyist who went from opposing the sixth Labour government\u2019s gun laws to being the minister responsible for them. These days, the self-described \u201cvery mischief\u201d second-term Act MP\u2019s got a few more tricks up her sleeve, in charge of major reforms to alcohol, gun and anti money laundering laws. For McKee, there\u2019s a throughline between all of these kaupapa: finding \u201ca good balance between relief for the everyday man, but also keeping the public safe\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can get relief and actually fix what matters to people \u2013\u00a0 they\u2019ll look at somebody who has actually achieved something in their time in government,\u201d McKee says. \u201cThe outcome will far outweigh any abuse that I get \u2013\u00a0 I\u2019m used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole McKee at The Realm, Hataitai (if you grew up in Wellington, you just sang that)<\/p>\n
This week has seen McKee keeping busy in her alcohol portfolio in particular, filling a drink behind a bar for the first time (let the record show that that was a perfect pour, by the way) and hyping up amendments to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, which will see a raft of changes including allowing licensed premises to serve alcohol outside licensed hours for events like the Rugby World Cup, and legally requiring licensed premises to offer zero-alcohol drinks as a low alcohol option. With these reforms, alongside amendments she\u2019s overseen in the Arms Act, set to be passed into law by the end of this year, McKee isn\u2019t itching to find a new passion project. A post-graduate course in public policy she undertook while in opposition at Victoria University taught McKee that passing a bill is only half the job of creating good laws, \u201cyou\u2019ve actually got to implement it well, or it\u2019ll fall over\u201d. So in looking towards this year\u2019s general election, McKee\u2019s hopes are simple: get enough party votes to come back next term and finish the job.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d think the guns, booze and dirty money rounds would make for a pretty hardened woman, but McKee\u2019s strong whaea vibes are disarming. She\u2019s got a hearty laugh and sees herself as the aunty of the Act Party caucus, the one who checks up on her colleagues and makes sure they\u2019re staying sane in the bizzarro and \u201clonely world\u201d that is politics. There was some key advice her party leader David Seymour gave her once: parliament is \u201ca marriage wrecker, so if you\u2019re gonna do it, make sure you have got your family\u2019s support.\u201d McKee seems to have this in bucketloads: her husband, Duncan, is always waiting at the front door with a smile and a hug whenever she gets home from work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also easy to ignore the noise when you\u2019re tuned out of it all. One random thing you should know about McKee is that she hasn\u2019t owned a television since her last one went bust on Christmas Day, 2001. Back then she was a mum to three under three (her four children are now well in their 20s) who were \u201cabsolutely devastated\u201d by the event, but it was summer, and the kids managed to keep themselves busy with the wonders of the great outdoors. The family never ended up replacing the TV after that. Her children enjoyed a TV-less childhood and now McKee has an effortless approach to leaving work at work and not have it follow her home. Her TV-less life is also what brings her here, to The Realm, to catch the league (she only winces slightly when I refer to it as rugby) and catch up with the characters around Hataitai village.<\/p>\n
THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A<\/p>\n
How much should a pint cost?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s got to be well under $8 to make it affordable. One of the areas that I\u2019ve been looking into with the alcohol changes is the amount that\u2019s charged on excise tax. I reckon eventually, once we get into a good space financially as a country, we can reduce the excise tax and get the pints of beer back down to an affordable price.<\/p>\n
Do you have a karaoke go-to?<\/p>\n
I was thinking back to my days of karaoke and Bob Marley\u2019s \u2018Jamming\u2019 came into my head. That\u2019s a song that anyone, at a party or a pub, will sing along to.<\/p>\n
Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?<\/p>\n
[Gestures around] I see my local pub as a community hub. When you came in, we were looking at the photos on the wall of the locals from around here who have passed on or moved on, and I was going up there to see if there was anyone that I knew. And that\u2019s what I mean by a local hub, as opposed to a pub that people just get drunk in.<\/p>\n
Which three MPs would be on your pub quiz team?<\/p>\n
David Seymour, most definitely. I think he is the most intelligent person that I\u2019ve ever met. Shane Jones; Harvard-educated but also extremely funny, and I think having him and David would be hilarious. They\u2019re my [Ng\u0101puhi] cousins. And then the third one I was thinking of is [Act MP] Cameron Luxton, because Cameron has a sphere of knowledge of all sorts of random stuff.<\/p>\n
Which MP from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t mind having a drink with [Greens MP] Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan<\/a>, because I find him a respectful politician. He asks lots of questions in the committee on the whole, but he\u2019s not doing it to be a pain. He might be trying to do it to prolong process, but the questions are always really good questions, and it makes me think, \u201cthis is a guy who actually studies up and thinks about all these different bills\u201d. You know, he\u2019s got a great smile, he looks like he\u2019s got a good personality, and I wouldn\u2019t mind getting to know him a bit more.<\/p>\n Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve had a pretty good go, and I\u2019m pretty chuffed with what I\u2019ve got coming. I guess I\u2019ll come back to that excise tax again; if we get the country in a position where we can relax those excise rules, I would really like to give that a go.<\/p>\n What\u2019s a policy area we\u2019ve been nursing without finishing the glass?<\/p>\n I always think in the legislation that I\u2019m changing that you could always do more. For example, in firearms, I would love to have a sporting exemption for people to be able to continue with their sport under strict conditions, which is not what they\u2019ve had in the past. \u00a0With alcohol, I\u2019d like the excise tax. Looking at the things that I\u2019m doing in courts, [it\u2019s] remote participation, and trying to get the courts operating faster. In all the laws that I\u2019m looking to change, I\u2019d love to have gone a little bit further.<\/p>\n