Brooke van Velden doesn’t immediately strike you as a politician. She’s young – she turned 30 this year, and she’s very calm and softly spoken.
“I was actually a very shy child,” smiles Brooke, who is wearing her signature vibrant pink at her Act electorate offices in Tāmaki – an old single-storey building that was once the St Heliers police headquarters.
“I used to go bright red if someone spoke to me. Mum tells me I’d cling to her skirt