MP & mum Arena Williams IT'S A LABOUR OF LOVE

Juggling two young kids and a career in politics isn't easy - and this Manurewa mother has no interest in pretending otherwise

- Nicky Pellegrino

When life gets stressful for Arena Williams, she picks up a paint brush.

A mother of two young children and the MP for Manurewa, she has a busy life. But if she can find a few moments for creativity, it always pays off.

Slowly she is completing a brightly coloured mural on the walls of her family home in South Auckland. Her living room also features artworks created by Arena and her father, Sir Haare Williams, along with items of furniture they have restored together.

“We started making this painting together when I was four years old,” says the 33-year-old Labour politician, pointing to one that is hung in pride of place. “It’s a board of plywood and we’d work on it to test out ideas. Dad taught me a lot of lessons: It’s always OK to change your mind; there’s never a mistake – it’s just a feature of the end product; and also to take risks but also have a plan B. Now he lives with me, so my kids get to paint with him and learn those same lessons.”

Arena was originally set on going to art school, but then she realised there was another path she needed to follow. With Haare’s teaching in mind, she changed direction, and instead went to study law and commerce at the University of Auckland, where she became involved in student politics.

Her father is an extraordinary role model. As well as being an artist, writer, teacher and broadcaster, he was a city councillor in Papakura.

Arena recalls, “He’d always be at the kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon, meeting people who had come over to our house to talk about some local issue. Whatever it was, he’d be willing to listen and work through problems with people.”