Nicola Valentine Willis (born 7 March 1981) is a New Zealand politician who has been deputy leader of the National Party since 2021. She is also the Minister of Finance, the Minister for Social Investment, the Minister for Economic Growth, and was also the Minister for the Public Services in the Sixth National Government.
Willis describes her childhood as "privileged". After a secondary education as a boarder at Auckland private school King's College, Willis went on to seek a first-class honours degree in English literature from Victoria University of Wellington and a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the University of Canterbury. She entered the New Zealand House of Representatives on the National Party list in 2018 after a career as a political advisor and corporate lobbyist. She became her party's deputy leader in 2021, following the election of Christopher Luxon as party leader.
In 2023 Willis was appointed Minister of Finance and shortly after that, Minister for Economic Growth. In her first two years in these roles, among other decisions, the coalition government implemented massive cuts in government spending. Radio New Zealand estimated over 9,500 public servants lost their jobs. 16,000 people in the construction sector were put out of work. In early 2025, national unemployment rose to about 5.1%. When the June quarterly figures for 2025 showed a drop of 0.9% in GDP, there were calls for Willis' resignation. She has also received two letters co-signed by 15 to 20 prominent economists expressing their concerns about the impact of her policies. Willis responded to these criticisms simply saying she didn't agree.‘Not sound economics’: 20 economists slam government’s economic strategy, The Post, 4 October 2025
In a ‘Mood of the CFO’ survey in September 2025, the business community, particularly chief financial officers (CFOs) expressed significant concerns about the government's economic policy under Nicola Willis. They perceive the government as lacking a clear and coherent economic strategy, focusing too much on cost-cutting and appeasing minor coalition partners rather than on long-term growth and reform.Financial executives feel the Coalition Government is unlikely to deliver the reforms needed to boost business growth and fix tax policy problems, Interest, 11 September 2025
Early life Willis was born and raised in Point Howard, Lower Hutt. She is the eldest of three children. Willis's mother was a journalist in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, her father a partner in corporate law firm Bell Gully who later rose to be chairman of the New Zealand Energy Corporation, an "active oil and gas exploration company". Her great-great-grandfather, Archibald Willis, was a Liberal Party member of Parliament from 1893 to 1896 and 1899 to 1905.
After a "privileged childhood", she first attended Samuel Marsden Collegiate, a private school for girls, before asking to spend her last two years of high school as a boarder at King's College in Auckland – a decision she regretted, because "the boys were in charge." Her first job was as a cashier and server at a Wholly Bagels store in Thorndon, Wellington, later working in retail stores selling clothing. While studying English literature at Victoria University, she was a member of the VUW Debating Society, competing in international tournaments.
Career After graduating from Victoria University in 2003, Willis worked as a research and policy advisor for Bill English and as a senior advisor to John Key in 2008. During the preparation for the 2008 election, practice debate sessions were held for Key with Nicola Willis standing in for Helen Clark. She was asked to "dial it back a little" for fear of denting her candidate's confidence.
In 2012, Willis joined dairy co-operative Fonterra in a lobbyist role. She was later a general manager of Fonterra's nutrient management programme, and sat on the board of Export NZ, a division of lobbyist group Business New Zealand.
Willis was a director of the New Zealand Initiative, a pro-free-market public-policy Atlas Network linked think tank, from May 2016 until February 2017.
In opposition, 2018–2023
First term, 2018–2020 Willis contested the 2017 election as National's candidate for the electorate of Wellington Central, and was number 48 on the party list. Her platform of being "a champion for the predator-free policy" and an "advocate for the city's 'world class public service'" gained her 26% of the electorate vote, about half of the vote given to Grant Robertson.
On the preliminary result, it appeared that Willis would enter parliament as a party list MP, but her party's final result was inadequate. As she was second in line to fill a National Party list vacancy, she was finally given a seat in parliament several months later, after the resignation of Steven Joyce in March 2018. National leader Simon Bridges appointed Willis National's spokesperson on early childhood education.
Willis was vocal against Grant Guilford's unsuccessful attempt to change Victoria University of Wellington's name to the University of Wellington.
Willis was a key player in Todd Muller's move to replace Bridges as party leader in a 2020 leadership coup, playing the role of Muller's "numbers man" alongside Chris Bishop. She was rewarded with a ranking of 14 in the party caucus, and the housing and urban development portfolios. Only 55 days later Muller resigned, becoming the shortest-serving leader of any political party represented in Parliament in New Zealand's history. Under Muller's replacement Judith Collins, Willis was ranked 13th in caucus and given the education portfolio. With Muller's backers Bishop and Willis rising under Collins, political commentators speculated that "potential dissenters are being kept busy with big new portfolios."
Second term, 2020–2023 After the 2020 general election, Willis returned to parliament as a list MP, ranked 13, having lost again to Grant Robertson in the Wellington Central electorate. National was returned to Opposition and Willis was returned to the housing portfolio, where she worked with Housing Minister Megan Woods to develop bipartisan housing reform designed to encourage more medium density dwellings.
In November 2021, National Party leader Judith Collins lost a confidence vote and was removed by the National caucus. Willis was seen by media and political commentators as a contender for the party leadership or deputy leadership. Despite the speculation, she never launched a leadership bid, but was asked by Christopher Luxon to be his running mate as he launched a campaign for the leadership. They were elected unopposed on 30 November 2021, after Luxon's main rival, Simon Bridges, dropped his leadership bid in exchange for the finance portfolio. As deputy leader, Willis's liberal views on social issues are seen as a counterpoint to Luxon's more conservative positions.
Luxon unveiled his first shadow cabinet in December. Willis was assigned responsibility for housing and social investment. She picked up the finance portfolio in March 2022 when Bridges announced his resignation. As finance spokesperson, Willis defended National's policy of lowering tax rates despite criticisms that the policy would be inflationary; Luxon eventually dropped the policy.
In early August 2023, Willis introduced a private member's bill to allow parents to share their paid parental leave entitlement and take time off together. The bill was supported by all parliamentary parties except Labour, which used its majority to block the bill. In response, Willis accused Labour of "insulting every parent in New Zealand" in order to deny National a "win." During the lead-up to the 2023 New Zealand general election, Labour subsequently campaigned on raising paid partners' leave from two weeks to four weeks if re-elected.
Sixth National Government, 2023–present
At the election, Willis tried for a third time to be elected as a local MP, nominated as the National Party candidate for Ōhāriu. However, the electorate preferred to retain Labour MP Greg O'Connor by a margin of 1,260 votes. Willis remained in Parliament on the National Party list.
The election put National in a position to form a coalition government. In late November 2023, Willis was appointed as Minister of Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Social Investment, and Associate Minister of Climate Change. In a January 2025 reshuffle, Willis dropped the public service portfolio and became the first Minister for Economic Growth, which succeeded the former economic development portfolio. The next month, she was designated as the Acting Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (Grocery Sector) due to the new minister, Scott Simpson, declaring a conflict of interest in that part of his portfolio.
Income relief of $250 a fortnight In the run up to the 2023 New Zealand general election, Willis announced that if National were elected, her government would implement tax cuts amounting to $14 billion over four years, and that families with children would benefit by up to $250 a fortnight.National's tax plan and costings: What you need to know, RNZ 30 August 2023 In mid September 2023, Willis admitted that only 3,000 households would get the full tax relief under National's proposed tax policy, but denied that National had misled voters. She said she would resign if National failed to deliver on its tax reduction plan.
Foreign home buyers tax To compensate for lost revenue, Willis proposed reopening the housing market to foreign buyers and taxing them 15% on purchases over $2 million. The plan was criticised by a number of economists during the campaign, with claims there were insufficient wealthy foreigners wanting to buy houses in New Zealand and the government would be $530 million short each year. In post-election coalition negotiations, the foreign buyer policy was abandoned.
The Interislander ferry fleet controversy To make up for lost revenue, Willis chose to cut public spending, rather than borrow on the international market. On 13 December, she declined KiwiRail's request for an additional NZ$1.47 billion to replace its ageing Interislander ferry fleet. Funding to purchase two new ferries from Hyundai by 2026 had previously been approved by the outgoing Labour Government. NZ$300 million has been allocated to cover the cancellation of the iRex ferry project including cancelled infrastructure contracts and a break-fee with Hyundai.
Willis' decision to scrap the project was criticised by Labour's finance spokesperson Grant Robertson, the Maritime Union of New Zealand, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, the New Zealand Merchant Service Guild and the Aviation and Marine Engineers Association who called on her to resign as Finance Minister. The decision and subsequent activity has been described as the "ferry fiasco".
In mid December 2024, Willis claimed she had 'delivered' on the ferries when the coalition government announced a new company would be established to procure two new vessels. The company will have three shareholding ministers: Simeon Brown, Nicola Willis and Winston Peters, who was given a new responsibility as the Minister for Rail. In early March 2025, Winston Peters reported that two new Interislander ferries would delivered in 2029. As of June 2025, no contract has been signed to supply the ferries and no costs are available.New details of Cook Strait ferry replacement plan unveiled, RNZ, 31 March 2025
Budget cuts 2023 On 20 December 2023 Willis unveiled the Government's mini-budget, which she said would deliver NZ$7.47 billion in operational savings. Willis said: "Our Government is committed to getting the books back in order and effectively managing taxpayers' money. We have found billions of dollars' worth of savings within weeks of being elected, and we intend to continue this savings-drive to deliver a better deal for all New Zealanders."