''Do you have chickens?" asks the woman hanging off Social Development Minister Paula Bennett's shoulder as she tries to hustle to her next appointment. As much as you can hustle in hot-pink-heeled stilettos.
Chicken Woman has gatecrashed the Social Workers in Schools conference in Auckland to spruik a new court for homeless people. "Do you have chickens?" she gushes. "Because you're really good with ruffled feathers."
Bennett looks bemused. Her conference speech had just outlined the Children's Action Plan - a piece of work that Children's Commissioner Russell Wills calls the greatest focus on child abuse since 1989, and the piece de resistance of Bennett's tenure so far as the country's welfare kingpin.
Her appearance has both ruffled and smoothed feathers, much like her past five years in the job. She's soared: teen-solo-mum-made-good catapulted into the nation's heftiest ($23.6 billion) portfolio after just one term. Stalled: amid damaging family revelations. Bombed: with the discovery last year - the very week her beloved action plan was released - that Work and Income's public kiosks included a direct line into sensitive welfare data.
It's 9.15am and Bennett is late for her first appointment in an average day of cheery ministerial visits centred on kids at risk. Dressed in a floaty cobalt dress and a string of knotted hot-pink beads to match the shoes, Bennett strides into the hotel ballroom, unmistakable against a parade of overwhelmingly Maori and Pasifika women in sensible shoes.
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