By RNZ
A teenage student climate activist who is too young to vote has still managed to have her say this election campaign, challenging David Seymour over his party’s policy.
Aurora Garner-Randolph, 17, and a friend saw the Act leader during a walkabout in Christchurch on Tuesday.
Complete with political placards they burst into his media stand-up on the street.
Garner-Randolph told Checkpoint it was “completely spontaneous” and the pair took a study break to protest because “we are disgusted by the Act Party’s climate policies”.
“They want to repeal the oil and gas ban, which will make it way easier to burn more fossil fuels, which is just straight up climate denial, you know they want to repeal the Zero Carbon Act, get rid of the Climate Change Commission, it’s just beyond belief and he needed to be told that.”
Climate change was a “massive concern” for the teenager, but many of Act’s other policies were too, including tax policies and getting rid of public sector jobs, she said.
“And as I said to David Seymour in that protest, his rhetoric around co-governance is really incredibly divisive and stirring up racial division in this country and is not acceptable. We don’t want people like him to get in power.”
She said Seymour “fobbed” her off when she brought up a concern about his party’s plan to reverse “the meagre climate achievements we’ve got so far in Parliament”.
“He went, ‘Oh, have you read this obscure Parliamentary report’ from I think, I had a look 2014, so I would have been 9 by my count.
“I’m a young person engaging with political issues and the fact that he could not answer my question and just referred me to some obscure legislation he hoped I hadn’t read, really shows how he’s just trying to pull the wool over the eyes of average New Zealanders.”
Garner-Randolph wanted to show undecided voters and people who may not vote that they could not afford to have Seymour or National Party leader Christopher Luxon and NZ First leader Winston Peters in power.
“Because they will screw us over. Their policies are going to make the environment worse, they’re going to make living conditions for average New Zealanders worse.”
She wanted to show Seymour there was opposition to his ideas.
“I absolutely stand by what we did yesterday,” she said.
“We protested David Seymour because we know the Act Party policies are going to make life worse for most New Zealanders and for the environment and we cannot let him get into power.”
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.