Katie Nimon: National MP responds to Stuart Nash's comments about her Parliamentary leave

National MP Katie Nimon says she'd hate women being put off becoming a politician if parents weren't welcome in Parliament. 

NZ First Napier candidate Stuart Nash sent a text calling opponent Nimon one of the laziest MPs he'd come across, and claimed she'd taken nine months off on full pay.

Nimon went on Parliamentary leave last year, days before giving birth.

She says she took 10 weeks off, then returned to electorate work, and was back in Parliament after six months.

She says MPs countrywide take time off. 

"We don't want to make anyone thinking that they're doing that job that they can't take time with their family."

Nash says he has real respect for any working parent raising a newborn alongside a demanding job.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's deal with Stuart Nash. Stuart Nash, New Zealand
first candidate now is being accused of being sexist over
comments he made about National's n Ap MP, his rival
Katie Nimman and her maternity leave. He apparently sent a
text to Chris fin Lissen, formerly a National Party MP,
saying quote, Katie took nine months off on full pay,
went back for a week, then took another month off.

(00:20):
Laziest MP I've ever come across. And Katie Nimman is
with us. Now, Hi, Katie, hey, how are you very well?
Thank you? But that's not how you say it played out? Ah?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
No, well no, And then chrisphin Lesson's decency, he actually
text me to check that and I got the opportunity
to tell him I'm technically not entitled to maternity leave.
So I was on parliamentary leave, not having to travel
back to Wellington for six months, which was very very good.
But I was back working part time after ten weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Okay, so ten weeks and you went back to electric work.
Six months and you went back to parliamentary work.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, did you hear what I said before the news?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh no, I've actually just been in a meeting with
one of my local.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
MEAs Okay, So what I said before the news Katie
is that I actually reckon you should have been back
in Wellington earlier and at the ten week mark. Is
that unfair?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh? Look, I think everyone's going to say things differently.
I like to think that I had the backing of
my leadership. Chris Likes and in fact actually Jerry Brownlee
both said I could take longer, and I said no, no,
I want to come back. I don't want to get
stale on the job. But travel with a baby is hart.
I mean, some people might find it easy, but I
had to take my mum with me down to Wellington.

(01:31):
She had to bring my son to me. Whether it's
sneaking out a select committee or coming out of the
house to breastfeed him, travel with a baby is really hard.
And so I was really grateful to be able to
be in my electric for the extra time that some
of my colleagues weren't able to doing a bit more electrical.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Look, first of all, I'm not flexing on you as
a mum at all, and so I want you to
know that I fully respect how hard it is and
that at times you would have felt like you were
going crazy trying to do all of that, and you
probably still do frankly, and that probably goes on for years.
But who was doing your job as the Napier MP,
advocating on behalf of Napier when you were not for

(02:08):
those ten weeks, No, no for the six months. So
you're not in Wellington, you're not arguing your case and caucus.
Who's doing it for Napier.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, the good thing is I've got great buddy MPs
either side. So we had an arrangement with Catherine Weed
and Danny Kirkpatrick her both my neighboring MPs. But of
course I'm still in touch with all the ministers. In fact,
actually the ministers were doing an amazing job of reaching
out to me on any issue that Napier was related
to or would benefit or just benefit from whatever happened,

(02:36):
And in fact we still got heaps across the line.
So I'd say that the advocacy that I was doing
orbit remotely was still benefiting Napier the entire time, and
I'd challenge anyone to question that.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Okay, So in that case, do we need you like
if you have got buddy MPs either side of your electorate.
Why aren't we cutting costs and getting rid of MPs
like yourself, if we could just have neighboring electrics doing
the job for you.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, but who's bring every other electorate? So you know,
we all support each other when times get tough. You
know there's MPs are all around the country that you
know take a bit of time off for various reasons.
You know, what I would hate to see is that
women my age and my position decide not to become
representatives or don't feel that they're being represented in Parliament
because they don't see women with young children doing that job.

(03:22):
And so I think equally we don't want to make
anyone thinking that they're doing that job that they can't
take time with their family.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
But this job is very much Wellington and local.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
You know, it is equal parts representation in Parliament and
representation in the electorate. And you know I was able
to hit the ground running as soon as I was back,
and you know, credit to the team. We roll as
a team. We support each other and I don't think
anyone was hard done by.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
But I think that we all represent our rather large.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Communities very very well, and of course, my electric goes
all the way from rural Hastings up to Gisbon, includes
the city of Napier and is very diverse, and I
spent a lot of time getting to know the people
and what they need and how they like to be represented.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Out of interest, What did you do after six months?
Did you travel with your son?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah? So, as I said, my mum came down to
Wellington with me with my son and allowed me to
be able to go back to work as normal so
that I could have him there at night. And he
was still being breastfeed up to ten months, which I
was glad to be able to do. And yeah, so
she keept traveling with me up and down to Wellington,
which is a huge sacrifice from Herbert, something I'm incredibly
grateful for.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
You mums are awesome like that. How long do you
anticipate still traveling with him?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh, he doesn't now, So he's actually at home in
Hooks Bay with my family. So my husband and my
parents sort of share the load with Lockey and it
seems to be working really well and he's adapted really well.
He's fourteen months.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
How do you find that being away from him three
days a week.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
It's tough, but at the same time, I'm very much
at peace with the fact that he has a way
better time at home than being down here in Wellington.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
And I for this job, as you said.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
You know, I've signed up to be the representative of
Napier and I know that it comes with being in Wellington,
So you know, I'm pleased that he gets to go
to his amazing daycare and spend lots of extra time
with his with his grandparents. And you know, it's actually
my husband's been able to step up and spend way
more time with him than he might have otherwise because
of the traditional kind of parent role that we might expect.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
All Right, Katie, listen, thanks very much, good luck with everything.
It must be hard juggling Katie, Nyim and Napieri Empete
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