Nicola’s family strength ‘WE’LL SURVIVE ANYTHING!’
When Nicola Willis arrives at Parliament in the mornings, she’s usually the politician wearing a dash of bright red lipstick with a messy ponytail pulled back in haste.
As a busy mum-of-four, the deputy leader of the opposition has little time to spend getting her look just right. Instead, what time she does have in the morning is spent sipping strong black coffee and perhaps snatching a moment to read a book with her youngest daughter as her consultant husband Duncan Small rallies the clan to get ready for school.
Then, after giving quick goodbye kisses to her brood, Nicola darts out the door and drives 10 minutes from the family’s Wellington home to Parliament, where at times she works until midnight.
“Sometimes I think, if only I could clone myself and have the person who does the full-on parliamentary thing and then the person who gets to do the
