The reinvention of Paula Bennett: Private wealth, a new podcast and the art of the "no comment" - The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Paula Bennett's new podcast with the Herald, which launches today, is called Ask Me Anything, but when Kim Knight sits down with the former politician, she discovers some things are still off-limits - even for a self-confessed oversharer.

A few days before nominations for the Auckland mayoralty closed, Paula Bennett had regrets.

"I said to my husband - we do not talk about Auckland. You do not get to moan about anything. Because I feel guilty and I know I could do a damn good job and I'm dismayed at the direction I think they're heading."

And now, on the day of this interview, the field has narrowed. Leo Molloy has gone and the polls have "undecided" as the frontrunner. Does Bennett wish her name were on the ballot sheet?

"From a personal perspective, absolutely not. From a professional perspective, yes."

Paula Bennett is launching a new podcast with NZME today. Photo / Dean Purcell.

Ask her anything? Former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett is a self-confessed oversharer. Photo/Dean Purcell.

She could have won, she says. And she would have done a good job. But: "I don't mean to be rude, but the thought of sitting for a day in a council meeting with 19 others who are more interested in their own ideology and getting voted in again, than actually doing what's right, just literally makes me want to poke my own eye out with a toothpick."

At Bayleys Real Estate head office, near Auckland's Wynyard Quarter, the women wear black. They file out of a meeting room in black trousers, dresses and jackets; black heeled boots and stilettos - money and power, rendered monochrome. Bennett sails down the stairs in sneakers. She is full noise and full colour. On a scale of one to tomato-red-pants-and-matching-shirt, her confidence is off the charts. Love her, loathe her, but don't ignore this former Deputy Prime Minister.

The reinvention of Paula Bennett is a work in progress. She recently said it took her a year to detox from politics, from the "kick in the guts" delivered by a majority of her own caucus, when she and National party leader Simon Bridges were rolled by the short-lived pairing of Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye ahead of the 2020 general election.

"Look, people do go from being the deputy leader of the party to, you know, pretty much unranked - but I couldn't see that I would ever become the deputy leader again. Maybe I have contributed to the highest and best that I can? And there was definitely the age factor and definitely the fact that I wanted a professional life after politics."

This brings us to a very fancy lounge on the second floor of a national real estate company's headquarters. Bennett's job title is "national director – customer engagement & advisory". What does she actually do here? The chairman of the board has just slipped in to make a coffee. He has some thoughts: "The square root of f*** all!"

Bennett hoots. She loves this family-owned company - what she calls the "Kiwiness" of it. She's never sold a house. Her role is to connect things. People, money, policy.

"We might look at a big, potential land development. Is there a way government housing can work with a local developer, can work with council to make sure the infrastructure is there? I am the glue that tries to put those pieces together."

National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett fronts reporters at a 2019 media conference. Photo/Mark Mitchell

Paula Bennett hosts charades game show Give Us a Clue on TVNZ. Photo/Supplied

She fronts charity events and has a swag of side hustles - a newspaper column (Herald on Sunday), a television game show (Give Us A Clue), and an upcoming real estate reality show (Rich Listers). Perhaps the biggest surprise about Paula Bennett 2.0, is that she didn't find populist telly sooner.

"I'm an oversharer, that's an absolute! I'm a talker. Although one of the things I taught myself is you don't have to fill the silence. I was an automatic 'fill the silence' person. I'm an oversharer, but I've become very good at saying 'no' and not even giving a reason."

Her advice for nailing the "no comment"?

"The fewer words you use, the less likely they are to pursue it."

From today, Bennett adds "podcaster" to her portfolio. She's the host of "Ask Me Anything" a new New Zealand Herald show that "I'm really excited about in the context that, in another life, probably living in another country, I could have been an Oprah . . . that didn't happen for me, so this is a way for me to explore people and conversations that will go from everything from the frivolous to hopefully the very interesting".

The former deputy PM had undergone a reinvention. Photo / Dean Purcell.

Bennett, 53, says with a "mid-life crisis reinvention under my belt" she wants to share some of the things she's learned and ask others for their ad