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:amy adams Getting to Know AMY ADAMS HAS LIVED in the Selwyn electorate for 16 years. She moved to Christchurch from Auckland as a teenager to attend Canterbury University, and never went back. Amy graduated from Canterbury University in 1992 with first class honours and starting at the bottom of the legal ladder worked her way up until she was a commercial law partner in a well-known Christchurch law firm Mortlock McCormack - a role she gave up when she was chosen as the National candidate for Selwyn in 2008. Married to Don, they run a 600-acre sheep and crop farm in Aylesbury, mid-Canterbury. They have two children who are the sixth generation of the family to live in the area. Amy was first elected to Parliament in 2008 and served in her first term as Chairperson of both the Finance and Expenditure and Electoral Legislation select committees and also served as a member of the Justice and Electoral and Regulations Review Committees. Amy was re-elected in 2011 with a majority of 19,450 votes and as a key member of the National-led Government, Amy now serves as Minister for the Environment, Minister for Communications and Information Technology and Associate Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery. Q: Why did you first decide to run for parliament? What did you believe you could bring to policy making? A: Politics was always something I had an interest in and over the years I increasingly saw it as a way that I could contribute to the future that I wanted for New Zealand, to make it the country I wanted my kids and grandkids to grow up in. Being deeply ensconced in our local area, I knew contesting the Selwyn seat was the only way I Amy Adams National MP for Selwyn, Amy Adams lobbies daily for women to believe they have skills of value and sticking with it... even in the face of criticism. would ever want to enter Parliament and that in this job the opportunities come around very rarely, so when the chance to stand for National in my home seat came about in 2008 it was a bit of a now or never moment. What I hoped to bring to policy-making was a combination of the professional skills and experience I had gained from my legal career and the personal skills from my life as a parent, farmer, and employer. I've never claimed to have all the answers to the problems that confront us, but I had a strong desire to be part of addressing them and I believed that it was something I could add value to. Q: What do your children, Thomas and Lucy think of their mum being the 19th ranked politician in Government? A: Mixed views, I would think. There is some (perhaps grudging) admiration and pride but they also get frustrated at the demands it puts on my time and the impact that being a 'public' person has on the family. For me, I like knowing that my children can look at me and know that if they want to get involved and make a difference, that it is absolutely achievable. Q: In your professional life you have run your own business, doing everything from commercial and property law to resource management and lobbying. What advice would you give other businesswomen looking to enter a political career? And what essential skills should women have before entering a career in politics? A: I think the single biggest thing is to back yourself. Women are perhaps not as good as men at believing that they have skills of value and sticking with it, even in the face of criticism. Putting yourself forward for a career in politics doesn't need any particular background or qualification, but it was one of the scariest things I have done. It certainly helps to have good support around you, a degree of comfort with public speaking and, mostly importantly, you do need a real desire to be part of shaping New Zealand's future. Politics takes over your life and if you don't love it, I imagine it would be an awful existence. The hours are brutal and none of the decisions you will face are simple and all of them almost guarantee that whatever you do, a big group of people will be vociferous in telling you that you have done the wrong thing. In the end, there is nothing as simple as right and wrong answers. For myself, I knew I wanted to be able to sleep at night comfortable with decisions I had made and that if I was to be chucked out I would rather it was for making decisions that others didn't support, than for not having done anything in an effort not to upset anyone. Q: Being an active partner in your farming business, what do you believe the New Zealand government could do better to help women in this crucial industry? A: My own view is that the Government's role in changing industry attitudes to the place of women in a sector is a pretty limited one. Each sector has to step up and question whether women are fairly represented, and if not, what the barriers are for them. It seems to me that the greatest strides have been made when a few champions who sit within the existing structures get behind a few super motivated women and then create role models for those to come. Each woman who succeeds in a male-dominated sector makes it easier for those that follow and inevitably all the reasons that might have been put up as to why it couldn't work generally don't stand up to scrutiny. Q: You have been quoted as saying you were "hanging out a farmhouse window, trying 26 | www.hermagazine.co.nz