Priyanca's power move FROM MIGRANT TO MINISTER

Despite choosing not to have children of her own, the Maungakiekie MP feels right at home being in charge of the youth portfolio

- Leena Tailor

She's travelled the world, advocated for issues like domestic violence, emigrated to Aotearoa, found love outside a shoe shop, and is New Zealand's first minister of Indian descent. But of all the interesting topics people could raise when meeting Priyanca Radhakrishnan, there's one question she can't shake: "When are you having kids?"

The 43-year-old politician and her husband Ewan Richardson have happily built a life without children, yet Priyanca frequently finds herself interrogated over the decision.

"At the start, it was very much, 'Why don't you have children?" says the Aucklander. "Now people assume I have kids, but I still get, 'You don't know what you're missing, or, 'A woman's role is to raise children. People say I'm wasting my life or that Ewan and I would make good parents and are being selfish.

"If you don't have children, the onus is on you to explain why, which is unfair because it's as valid a choice as choosing to have children.

"It's tiresome having to constantly explain - and it's not a justification expected of my male colleagues."

Born in Chennai, India, Priyanca and her older sister Manavi grew up in Singapore (on a street called One Tree Hill - the name of the Auckland region she's now MP for), where her parents Raman and Usha worked. A "girly girl" who loved playing house with her dolls, she imagined becoming a mum.

"I saw married women had children and assumed someday that would be me," she recalls. "But as I grew up, I started questioning parenthood. I had friends talking about their biological clocks ticking and couldn't relate. People said I would eventually experience a desire to have children, but that never happened."

It's a choice that defies traditional Indian expectations, but Priyanca's life has always been a colourful merging of Western and Asian influence.