Nikki Kaye “blew people’s expectations out of the water” says National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis, reflecting on the life of a friend and former colleague who Willis believes was the bravest politician of recent times.

The former Auckland Central MP is understood to have died over the weekend after a battle with cancer, which she was first diagnosed with in 2016. The news on Tuesday was a shock to many, including politicians, community groups, and Aucklanders who knew the 44-year-old well.

Tributes came from across the political sphere.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called her a “remarkable person and crusader for what she believed in”, with her contribution leaving “our country in a better place”.

Her formal rival in the Auckland Central electorate, Dame Jacinda Ardern, said she was “deeply saddened” by Kaye’s death and would have “liked to have talked with her just one more time”.

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson, who is currently on leave with breast cancer, spoke of how Kaye reacted when she shared her diagnosis with her before making it public.

“You put your lunch down, stood up and just walked over to the other side of the table and hugged me silently for what seemed like the longest of time,” Davidson said.

Nikki Kaye is being remembered by those across the political divide. Photograph by Duncan Brown.

Kaye became an MP in 2008 after taking the electorate of Auckland Central, the first time a National candidate had done so in the seat’s history. She retained it at three further elections — including twice beating Dame Jacinda — until Kaye stood down ahead of the 2020 vote.

But Kaye already had a history at Parliament, having worked as a researcher there for the National Party in the early 2000s.

Willis, who would also join National as a researcher, told the Herald Kaye had an “amazing reputation” and was known as someone “who did it full throttle” and was “highly focused”.

“I knew her by reputation before I met her because her reputation in the National Party was that she was so full of energy that she would, literally, run down corridors,” she said.

“When I joined as a National Party researcher, I, from time to time, would have a bit of a trot or be in a bit of a hurry, have a similar degree of intensity, possibly not as frequently, and people would say, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re like Nikki Kaye’.”

When Kaye decided to stand for Auckland Central, Willis said there was an expectation she wouldn’t be able to unseat its incumbent MP, Labour’s Judith Tizard. But Kaye “disproved that”.

“She blew people’s expectations out of the water,” Willis said.

“From there, she was just fearless about her values and what she stood for, her constituents, what she believed her electorate needed, its causes, her liberal values.”

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has spoken of her memories with Kaye. NZME phorograph by Mark Mitchell

But Kaye also did things Willis said, “any first-term MP would be advised against”. That included Kaye speaking against her party’s plan to open Great Barrier Island — in her electorate — up to mining.

Willis put that opposition down to Kaye’s environmental values, though the deputy National leader quickly and repeatedly added: “I wouldn’t advise a first-term MP to do that”.

“She did it because she believed so strongly in it. Then she always carved out her own path, which was driving forward these causes she believed in”.

Those causes included adoption reform allowing adoption by gay couples — something she worked across the aisle on with the Greens’ Kevin Hague — pushing for a pride parade to be resurrected in Auckland.

Despite “having crossed the floor”, Willis said Kaye won the confidence of then-Prime Minister Sir John Key, who eventually elevated her into his Cabinet. Kaye would hold several ministerial roles, including Minister of Civil Defence and Minister for Youth.

In 2016, Kaye took time away from Parliament and her Cabinet positions after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned in 2017 and was appointed Minister of Education under Sir Bill English.

Speaking to the Herald on Tuesday, Key said Kaye initially wanted to leave “because she didn’t want to be a burden on us”. He said he had understood the diagnosis was more serious than was known publicly at that point, and told her if she had a family and children he would have urged her to leave.

“But I said to her, your life is politics and helping people and you need to fight this thing and come back. So she agreed to doing that and I think it gave her something to focus on.”

He said her victories in Auckland Central had been “much more a vote for Nikki than they were for my Government” and he knew she’d give her all to any ministerial portfolio she had.

“I think that she brought to Cabinet a different way of thinking sometimes, because she was a younger person partly but also she mirrored my view that she was economically conservative but socially liberal.”

Then-Prime Minister Sir John Key and Nikki Kaye at Big Gay Out in 2013. Herald on Sunday Photo by Michael Craig

Willis said Kaye was also an “incredible booster and supporter” of other people coming into Parliament, describing Kaye as “absolutely instrumental” in encouraging her, other women, liberals, and others to put their hands up and “shape the party in the image we wanted it to have”.

“When I was living in Auckland, and seeing her a lot, she was constantly in my ear, ‘Come on, come and get on with it, come and join’,” Willis said.

“When I entered Parliament, she was that rare thing in politics, which is someone who, when they talked to me or advised me or I shared my concerns with them, I knew I could 100% trust her, that is was not going to go anywhere and that when she gave me advice, she was doing so from the perspective of what she really believed would be best for me.”

Kaye wanted National to be “as strong as it could be”, a “generosity of spirit” that Willis believes was underestimated,

Willis and Kaye were among the key backers of Todd Muller when he successfully challenged Simon Bridges for the National Party leadership ahead of the 2020 election. Kaye would become Muller’s deputy following the coup.

Amy Adams, Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye in 2020. Photo / Mark Tantrum.

Reflecting on that, Willis said it became “clear to me that a massive driver for her was her fierce belief in the potential of the party and her desire to do right by it”.

David Farrar, National’s pollster and a good friend of Kaye’s, wrote on Tuesday that at that point Kaye knew she had “incurable” cancer and “her time was limited”.

“Her taking up the role of deputy was out of a strong desire to serve the party,” Farrar said.

Willis told the Herald that period ended up being a “difficult chapter”. Muller would resign as leader just 53 days later, on mental health grounds. Kaye became interim leader for several hours while her party had to quickly jostle with who would take charge just months out from an election.

As the Herald reported at the time, National MPs approached her, asking her to challenge for the leadership. But she instead decided to get out of politics.

“I walked out and came along the Parliament forecourt, and I felt this overwhelming sense that now is the time to leave,” Kaye told the Herald in July 2020.

Willis said that at all times Kaye was “motivated by the right things and the right values”.

“When she chose to leave Parliament, I remember feeling both, selfishly, incredibly disappointed for the National Party, but also personally, completely understanding that she needed to go and live her life and knowing that it would be a shorter life.”

Nikki Kaye at Tipi and Bob's at Tryphena with Mulberry Grove in the distance. Photo / Audrey Young

After politics, Kaye worked in the education and technology space and joined the board of AUT Ventures. She spent time overseas, including in California, but also set up base on her beloved Great Barrier Island.

Willis said she kept in touch with Kaye, an “incredible support” but also “an elbow sometimes”, reminding her “of the things that I needed to keep fighting for”. A “conscience”.

“I can’t think of any politician as brave as she was in her political lifetime.”

One “important memory” Willis had with Kaye in the past year that she will “treasure” was when they were both in Queenstown for a conference.

“I ended up nattering to her and then we ended up staying with a friend together and having a spa and staying up through the night and we talked about her health, and she was elusive about how things were going, but it was clear that things were challenging.

“I remember being stunned, because we went to bed really late, and in the morning I went to find her and she’d already got up and gone for a run and had a green juice and was on her way, and I just thought to myself, this is just incredible.”

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.