In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 48, our guest is the Deputy Leader of the Act Party and Minister of Internal Affairs, Brooke Van Velden.

A young Brooke Van Velden walked into a pub with a group of friends to celebrate a concert they’d just given. In doing so they stumbled across a get together of Act Party members and a relationship that was to change her life was born.

Van Velden is now the Minister of workplace relations and the Minister of Internal Affairs as well as deputy leader of the Act Party. She tells the story of her grandfather’s journey to New Zealand after world war two and of a comfortable upbringing in Auckland.

Her shyness at school was eventually overcome when the school’s choir master worked out that she could sing. The music department became her hangout and a shy schoolgirl became a confident performer, a skill that was to suit her forthcoming political career.

That political career started in the back office of the Act Party as she worked behind the scenes on a signature policy, the End-of-Life Choice Act, which passed into law in 2019, and she speaks respectfully of the touching stories she encountered traveling the country as that policy developed.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Brooke speaks to Bruce Cotterill about a wide range of topics, including life in the opposition benches in the 2020 – 2023 term and the transition to government for the current term.

We go behind the scenes and find out what it’s like to be a part of the coalition negotiations, and we learn that she only found out about her ministerial appointments when those negotiations were complete.

Business owners and entrepreneurs will enjoy her comments about her desire to create a high wage growth economy with a flexible labour market and creating both the opportunities and the confidence to invest in our country. 

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