Election 2020: David Cormack - Act's political harvest will wither on the vine

ACT Leader David Seymour during the Act Party BBQ at Mission Bay Beach. Photo / Brett Phibbs

OPINION

The Act party is doing well. It's always been a mystery to me why David Seymour has a twitter account and why the Act party has a twitter account. For so long the two have been one and the same.

But not this year! No, this year the party looks like it's going to be bringing in a lot more MPs. The last poll had Act on 8 per cent, bringing in 11 MPs.

Some might attribute this to the hard work that David Seymour has done as sole Act MP and that this is his just rewards. But those people are wrong.

What is driving Act's high polling is three things. Number one, and the major driver, is how weak National is polling. National got 44 per cent at the 2017 election. The last poll had them at 32 per cent. That 12 per cent has to go somewhere. And enough of them will be right-wing folk who could never vote for Labour so go to Act.

The number two driver is the collapse of the NZ First vote. The "renegade" voter, the person who likes to vote for the party who is a bit out there, a bit different, a bit racist. A lot of them will have gone to Act too.

And finally opportunism.

There's a myth that Act took a principled stance against the gun laws, which is why we see Nicole McKee, "prominent gun advocate", at three on Act's list.

Act did not take a principled stance against the gun laws at all. Act took a stance against the gun laws being rushed through under urgency. In fact during the debates laws, Seymour said that when he rose to speak in opposition to the laws he was opposing the bill as it was being put through, "not to the idea that firearm laws must become more restrictive."

And when National received huge backlash for supporting the law changes, Seymour quickly pivoted to being not just against the process, but against restrictive gun laws as a whole.

David Seymour the Act Party leader. Photo / Michael Craig

Seymour needs to be called out for the opportunist that he is.

That said, I endorse Act getting a higher vote.

Because Act's list does not have an ideology. It is a collection of people who believe a bunch of different stuff. And it's stuff that Seymour is going to spend the next three years having to control and defend.

This will make the right look completely non-viable as a government. The higher Act gets, the more MPs it brings in, the fewer, more competent MPs National gets. Meaning it will be less likely that National will be able to win the 2023 election.

So go on right wing folk, vote Act.

• David Cormack is co-founder of communications and PR firm, Draper Cormack Group. He has worked for the Labour Party, the Green Party and has interned for Bill English.