Jacinda Ardern nemesis David Seymour key to new era of NZ conservatism

ACT Party leader David Seymour speaks during budget day 2022 at parliament.

One of New Zealand’s most important politicians is an earnest and enthusiastic Aucklander whose actions once famously provoked Jacinda Ardern into calling him a “prick” during parliamentary debate. The politician in question is David Seymour and he is having a whale of a time, despite being a political minnow as a leader of the minor party.

Seymour helms ACT New Zealand, which sits comfortably on the right wing of politics as a classic libertarian party. ACT sees value in tradition and a limited government, as well as virtue in personal responsibility and freedom.

Seymour, 40, is enjoying his new-found station because the party he has led for seven years has never been stronger. It’s primed not just to help usher in the next government but to signal its direction.

Recent polling suggests a change of government in what is still likely to be a keenly contested October 14 general election. The opposition centre-right National Party’s polling advantage has recently strengthened, while the centre-left incumbent Labour Party is struggling to gain ground, in part because of a barrage of ministerial scandals and a dogged cost-of-living crisis.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is generally polling around the 30 per cent mark, with the Christopher Luxon-led National Party consistently about 2-3 points higher. And of the smaller parties that sit below the two main parties, ACT is the most popular. It consistently polls around 12 per cent – in clear third place.

National is well placed to win the most seats in parliament but not enough to form a parliamentary majority. Luxon can only form a government with the aid of a compatible and friendly smaller party.

To this end, he is likely to solicit the support of ACT, a natural ally, and Seymour is likely to accept Luxon’s hand.

It is a widely accepted political reality that National’s path to power runs through ACT. The easily imagined National-ACT scenario will sit more comfortably with Luxon than having to countenance the prospect of accommodating the notoriously capricious Winston Peters. The former deputy prime minister is enjoying a late surge in political support – enough to see Peters’ populist NZ First party return to parliament in small numbers after being ousted by voters in the last general election.

Jacinda Ardern

While Luxon dodges questions over teaming with Peters, Seymour roundly rejects the idea of sharing the cabinet table with NZ First. For Luxon, Seymour is a far more trustworthy bedfellow than Peters. On the understanding that Seymour will have an outsized and essential contribution to a new governing bloc with National, New Zealand’s next government could be the most conservative and ideologically staunch administration in the county’s modern political history.

Like any politician operating close to the political margins, Seymour can be provocative and without compromise, overly zealous in pursuit of goals, and divisive on issues. Few parliamentarians stir public emotions like Seymour.

In parliament, he has elevated his national standing and profile. Seymour has a sure talent for news-making. He is proficient at inserting himself in news cycles across a range of issues, sometimes with aplomb and sometimes with mixed results. Imbued with heightened political standing, he exercises a certain flounce and brio in defiance of his party’s size.

Winston Peters

Seymour’s self-confidence also springs from his experience as a political operator, one who has observed the ebb and flow of politics. Both a long-term party member and twice-failed parliamentary candidate, Seymour ascended to the party leadership in 2014 after entering parliament that year as ACT’s only MP, after securing the well-heeled Auckland constituency of Epsom.

Seymour has salvaged his party from the doldrums. In just six years, he has pushed ACT from a marginal position, polling at under 1 per cent, to its current position. As a legislator, Seymour can be adroit and determined.

An intellectual, he is a typically dispassionate and unsentimental debater. He can, however, call upon a quick and acerbic bite. Devoted to the practice of politics, Seymour appears to play the game better than most. Indeed, few parliamentarians seem to enjoy their jobs more than he.

He is the bête noire of the New Zealand left and clearly relishes getting under Labour’s skin – just ask Ardern. To grasp Seymour’s public profile is to understand the lodestar that pilots his politics. In defiance of right-wing culture warriors, Seymour endorsed legislation supporting greater LGTBI rights and protections. He did so not because he is wholly socially liberal, but rather to uphold the ideal of freedom to live one’s life unhindered and unharmed.

This devotion to personal freedom helped Seymour frame his key role in giving life to voluntary euthanasia law changes in 2021. It also contributed to his criticism of New Zealand’s stringent Covid lockdown measures under Ardern.

David Seymour makes his way to the House at Parliament in Wellington.

While supportive of New Zealand’s independent foreign policy, Seymour wants to revitalise the historical bilateral partnerships and traditional alliances. He fully supports the trilateral AUKUS security arrangement and wants New Zealand to join.

One possible hitch to better relations with Australia could concern immigration. Seymour has a habit of trolling Anthony Albanese on trans-Tasman immigration and any related bilateral agreements to ease citizen pathways, which he thinks will simply bleed New Zealand of its talent.

Seymour is a man who wants to be taken seriously. And while he may be a “prick” to some and a capable freedom-loving politician to others, he is many things to many New Zealanders.

One thing that is sure about Seymour is that he is now an important national figure and possibly more so in future.

Craig Greaves is a NZ-based writer who spent nearly a decade working for the US State Department.