Labour\u2019s justice spokesperson was once interviewed by a teddy bear posing as one of our best-known broadcasters.<\/p>\n
Having passed three member\u2019s bills over three years, you could say Labour MP Camilla Belich has luck on her side. But that would be overlooking all her hard mahi in some pretty hefty portfolios (currently justice and public services). Belich could soon hit a member\u2019s bill home run, with her Modern Slavery Bill on its way to the select committee (submissions close in two days), but she\u2019s not one to count her chickens before they hatch.<\/p>\n
Maybe parliament is where the former union lawyer was always meant to be. Her Labour Party politics are genetic; her great-grandfather went leafleting for Michael Joseph Savage, her grandfather was Labour mayor of Wellington Sir Jim Belich, and her parents were trade unionists. Belich herself has also always been the political type. She served on Wellington\u2019s youth council as a teenager, and, while at law school, she was co-president of the NZ University Students Association, alongside her now husband. She entered parliament in 2020 as a list MP.<\/p>\n
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Her most recent feat has been getting the Modern Slavery Bill past its first reading by joining forces with National MP Greg Fleming. The two invoked for the first time standing order 288, which allows a member\u2019s bill to bypass the ballot system and head straight to its first reading if it has the support of at least two-thirds of non-executive MPs. After working on the bill for two years and going through some 20-odd versions, is this the work that Belich is proudest of this term?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t take the passing of a bill for granted until it actually passes,\u201d she says. \u201cThe thing that I think about is, how do you implement long-term change that survives government? Us doing it cross-party is hopefully a way of ensuring that it doesn\u2019t get repealed. That is something I\u2019m always thinking about, because a lot of bills that Labour passed that I felt were really meaningful, like fair pay agreements, were repealed. I\u2019m always thinking, how do we take the public with us? And other political parties, to make sure change is enduring.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can never really sit back on your laurels,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Sitting opposite Belich, you can\u2019t help but feel a little bit mogged<\/a>, intellectually and otherwise. Her hobbies include weight-lifting (though she doesn\u2019t want to give the impression she\u2019s some Olympic-level athlete \u2013 \u201canyone who comes into the parliament gym will see that I\u2019m not\u201d); and \u201cBookTok\u201d (she \u201cdabbles in romantasy\u201d). She\u2019s a fan of a good power suit, so it\u2019s no surprise that one of her passions is fashion. We both agree it\u2019s weird that women should feel shamed for giving a shit about pretty things; after all, fashion is \u201can amazing female-dominated industry that does a lot for economic growth, and people marginalise the work they do because it\u2019s clothes and shoes\u201d.<\/p>\n Belich even has an autograph from one of her fashion icons, Audrey Hepburn. \u201cWhen I was a kid, my grandmother was at a function with her, and she signed the menu: \u201cTo Camilla, love Audrey\u201d. Belich smiles. \u201cI\u2019ve got that framed at my house.\u201d<\/p>\n THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A<\/p>\n How much should a pint cost?<\/p>\n Well, I\u2019ve read some of your previous interviews, and had a bit of a Google, and I think the consensus is around $10. Which everyone still thinks is quite a lot. But I\u2019m drinking the non-alcoholic [beer], and that is actually a similar price, which is really interesting \u2013 apparently that\u2019s because it\u2019s quite difficult to take the alcohol out and still keep that taste. I don\u2019t want to judge them for charging because I have no idea how that process works.<\/p>\n Do you have a karaoke go-to?<\/p>\n I try to stay away from karaoke. Even my children tell me to stop when I try singing them songs. My girls have got me into Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter \u2026 I like some of those tracks on The Life of a Showgirl album, I like the collab. I really love Nadia Reid, I feel like I\u2019m literally one of her biggest fans because I listen to all of her music and have a Nadia Reid hat.<\/p>\n Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?<\/p>\n Do you know Swashbucklers [in Auckland]? It\u2019s really unpretentious, there\u2019s so many people from big companies like Air New Zealand and Fonterra that come down, but then there\u2019s also just the regulars. And my kids love it too, because they do amazing seafood.<\/p>\n Which three MPs would be on your pub quiz team?<\/p>\n If there was anything about wool [in the quiz], then I would definitely pick [NZ First\u2019s] Mark Patterson. I\u2019ve been really impressed with my colleague Vanushi Walters and her knowledge about foreign affairs. She\u2019s super smart, and we actually went to primary school together. We went to each other\u2019s birthday parties, then she moved to Auckland, and we connected again when we were teenagers doing youth councils.<\/p>\n I know that a few people have picked him, but I stood against [Green MP] Lawrence Xu-Nan<\/a> in Epsom. He\u2019s an Egyptologist, so for the Egypt round it\u2019d have to be Lawrence. My round would be 90s pop culture or something like that. Something that was in a weekly magazine 20 years ago.<\/p>\n Which MP from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?<\/p>\n