Phil Goff 'easier to live with when he's got a challenge' says wife Mary

Mary Goff, wife of newly-elected Mayor Phil Goff, says the leftie university student she met when he was 18 and she was 15 is probably the best person for the job.

On spotting his wife being interviewed by the Herald, Goff made a beeline for his wife, put his arm round her and said: "This is a rare interview."

So what rare insights did the media shy wife give out about her political husband? He was always going to get there, the polls were good and he had a "very good chance" of winning.

"I think it will be very good for him. He is always up for a challenge and I think he is easier to live with when he has got a challenge."

She said her husband will not be home "as much as I would like", but she would have him in Auckland, not Wellington where he has spent 32 years as an MP.

The couple live on a 8ha farmlet in Clevedon. Goff has been pretty much the MP for Roskill since 1981 - the same year Helen Clark and John Banks entered Parliament.

Asked if she planned to take on the role of mayoress, Mary Goff said she had not planned on anything.

"It's early days. I don't even know what the job of mayor involves. I'm not quite sure how I would be involved," she said.

Said the new mayor: "I couldn't do what I do politically without the support I get from my wife. She has been amazingly supportive."