Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the death of former National MP Nikki Kaye

Former National MP Nikki Kaye has died aged 44 after battling cancer. 

Kaye was the first National MP to win Auckland Central aged 28, holding it from 2008 to 2020.

She also held Cabinet positions, including two-months as deputy to former National leader Todd Muller.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says Kaye was ambitious and driven. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News talks 'B. Follow
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
So Sad News. Earlier this morning, former National MP Nicki
Kay has passed away, aged forty four, after battling cancer.
Ka was the first national impeter win Auckland Central age
twenty eight, holding it from two thousand and eight to
twenty twenty. Joining us in studio as News talks 'B
senior political correspondent Barry Sopa.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Hey you, Barry, good afternoon guys. It was a good
segue talking about gray areas that you came to me.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
You've got some beautiful gray areas, so yeah, and incredibly
sad news. You had a lot to do with her, Barry.
What what was Nicki Kay like as a person?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Oh? She was a great person. I mean she was
a kick ass type person that look, you always knew
where you stood with Nicki Kay, And I think all
her colleagues would say the same thing like you said
Tyler at the beginning, that she was the first notional
Party Auckland Central MP and the history of the seat

(01:13):
and the only one so far. Because the interesting thing
to me was that Jacinda ar Durn always tried to
knock her off her perch, and twice Ardurn was unsuccessful
and Nicky Kay beat her hands down. And somebody very
senior in the Greens said to me today that if

(01:35):
Nicki Kay had decided to stay on after twenty twenty,
maybe we wouldn't be talking about Chloe Swallbrick as the
co leader of the Green Stone. I think she was
probably right.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Will that be a big part of her political legacy,
do you think, Barry? I mean, those achievements at such
a young age and in that seat which has been
traditionally labor, Is that what people will remember Nicki for.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, well, Auckland is most certainly will. She is very
well known in the city and I think the mark
of the woman is the number of tributes that have
flowed in from across the political spectrum. And you know
she was she was a blue Green actually, and maybe
that's why Chloe Swarbrick was so successful after her, because

(02:21):
she really great laid the foundation. Don't forget she was
also the deputy leader of the National Party under the
disastrous period that fifty eight days. I think it was
that Todd Muller was the leader of the National Party
and that was when they were going through terrible times.
But I think, you know, when she decided to step

(02:42):
down from politics in twenty twenty, I think it was
a decision that was made by her that she had
done a lot in politics for a young person. She'd
probably had a gutfall of the place and decided because
it was a particularly difficult period for the National Party
and clearly she decided there were better things to do.
She sort of went bush on a great barrier for

(03:07):
some considerable time. Unfortunately, she was back in Auckland when
she died last Saturday. So you know, tributes, like I said,
have been flowing in for this rather wonderful woman.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
So you say she was a blue Green, is that
still a movement in National Not to.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
The same extent was my dear old late friend Rob
Fennick that really got it going, and unfortunately he passed
away several years ago. But Neckie Kay was very much
to the fore when it came to Green issues and
she was respected in her own party. And the other
thing was that John Key has come out and he

(03:44):
said that he talked to her for several or not
several hours, but about an hour and a half a
couple of weeks ago and said, you know, they exchanged
a lot. And some of her friends have been telling
me that a couple of months ago, even though she's
had that long battle with cancer, with breast cancer since
twenty sixteen, they've said that, Look, a couple of months ago,

(04:07):
she was in fettles. She was the old Nikki Kay
and unfortunately went downhill very quickly.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Yeah, so it's an incredibly sad situation. So if she
had so, you know, in that situation there with the
Todd Muller, if that hadn't happened like that, do you
think that you know, and obviously that what did happen
with her health, She seemed to me that someone that
was on the track to truly great things.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, absolutely, I think you know, you're always tainted by
leadership spills, and she was very much part of the
Todd Muller camp. Although Todd Muller hasn't done him that
much harm, but she was tainted and I think she
felt it quite strongly. But like in politics, time heals everything.

(04:51):
And if she had stuck around, if she's still there now,
I'd guess that she would have most certainly been part
of Chris Luckson's cabinet and because he knew her as
well as did many people in Auckland Central.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, well, thank you so much, Barry. That's incredibly, incredibly said,
because she was a very very nice person.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
And well respected on all sides of the ILA said, Yeah, Berry,
thank you very much. That is senior political correspondent for
News Talks. That'd be very sober.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
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