How well do we really know our politicians and the personal values and experiences they bring to decisions that affect us all?
Newshub Nation's Backstory series goes behind the scenes into our political leaders' lives and childhood photo albums.
Anna Lorck represents Labour in the Tukituki electorate in Hawke's Bay.
She was born in Palmerston North in 1971.
Lorck was initially raised in Waipukurau by her single mother in a state housing area.
Her first living memory is of her stepfather in military uniform.
"Being part of a military family, dad fought in Vietnam and did two tours of duty," she said.
Lorck said that the military values her dad instilled in her have stuck with her to this day and are the reason she gets up at 4:30am every morning.
"I think I talked a lot, I was quite curious," she recounted.
She loved doing shows and would dress up her brothers in ballerina costumes.
Lorck said that the way she left school had a "profound impact".
She admits that she was perhaps being "distractive or disruptive" when her teacher began talking about mediocrity.
Her teacher said "if you want to know what mediocre looks like, you don't have to look past Anna".
Lorck remembers being "really upset but also thinking 'Am I?'.
She then went home and told her parents, "I don't want to go back".
Thus began her career as a cadet reporter.
She then got married and had her first daughter Tabitha, before working part-time as a young mother.
She now has five children.
"If someone had asked me a decade ago 'Do you know that you'll be the local MP for Tukituki?' I would have never dreamed that that's where I'd be today," she said.
She was first inspired to get into politics when she saw the principal of one of her children talking at a prize-giving ceremony.
"He started talking about national standards and the impact that was having on young children's lives."
She asked him how they could get rid of them and he replied "Well we have to fight the government."
"I said 'Oh, ok, I'll go and fight the government' so I joined the Labour party."
However, when she first decided to join she waited until her husband, Hastings District Councillor Damon Harvey, had gone overseas on a surfing trip.
"I didn't mention it to him at all."
She also didn't tell her father, who had previously put himself forward to stand for the ACT party.
"So he was a very staunch National and ACT voter. He read in the newspaper that I'd been selected and he rang me and said 'I will never go to your maiden speech.'"
In a tightly contested race in 2017 she missed out on the Tukituki electorate, but persevere and won the seat in 2020, returning it to Labour for the first time since 2002.
Lorck's father did end up attending her maiden speech.
"I think underneath it all he knows why I really did it.
"It was an incredible feeling to finally get there," she said.
"When I started I don't really think anyone knew what we were getting into."
Lorck said she has massive gratitude towards her children for their help in her political journey.
"Family is such a huge part of my life, we do everything together," she said.
Watch the full video for more.
Watch Newshub Nation 9:30am Saturday/10am Sunday on Three & Three Now, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
