Act leader David Seymour will be painting a pretty picture for Act ahead of the election during his speech at the party's annual conference in Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Act leader David Seymour will be painting a pretty picture for Act ahead of the election during his speech at the party's annual conference in Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
If there’s one way to energise Act Party members ahead of the annual conference, it’s to persuade a twice-elected National MP to join the team.
The confirmation of Dr Parmjeet Parmar as Act’s Pakuranga candidate will be abonus for the party faithful seeking to establish Act as a viable and sustainable option on the right of New Zealand politics.
It is worth noting that for Parmar, Act was seemingly the only vehicle that could see her back in Parliament. She unsuccessfully sought selection as National’s candidate in three different electorates before leaving the party earlier this month and immediately jumped to Act with a strong chance of being afforded a high list position.
Parmjeet Parmar was in the running to be the National Party candidate in the Mt Roskill byelection. Photo / Doug Sherring
But Act members will care little about that. For them, it adds to the momentum initiated by the confirmation of former Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard, a longtime Act supporter, standing in Rangitīkei.
Both additions come across as successful raids within National’s territory, which will contribute to the slightly tepid but important contest between David Seymour and Christopher Luxon.
Parmar and Hoggard will likely explain their decision to join Act during their speeches at the party’s annual conference at SkyCity in Auckland tomorrow afternoon.
A policy announcement will come from Seymour and is expected to be about cutting regulation and red tape.
The conference is a fairly no-frills affair, lasting only two hours - a far cry from Labour’s two-day election-year Congress.
In addition to Seymour, members will hear from a selection of party MPs - Brooke van Velden, Mark Cameron, Nicole McKee and Karen Chhour - on a range of topics including co-governance, justice and climate change.
Aside from deputy leader van Velden, those MPs may be wondering if the party’s shiny new additions might be given priority.
They needn’t worry, according to Seymour, who gave what commitment he could to the 10 MPs who had largely avoided trouble in the last three years.
“I’m just one member of the board so to some extent, it’s not under my control,” Seymour tells the Herald.
“But I would expect to see our incumbents, all of them, in winnable slots.”
Act Leader David Seymour and his MPs. Photo / Brett Phibbs
What defines a winnable slot? Seymour argues those in the top “16 or 17″ are in a good position based on current polling and the hope he has for the coming election.
“Given that we’re polling 14 or 15 [MPs] at the moment and we think we can get some headroom on that.”
Act reached 7.6 per cent in 2020. Seymour believes that can be doubled this year.
The Herald’s poll of polls shows Act consistently polling at or above 10 per cent, which contributed to Seymour’s optimism ahead of October 14.
“For most of Act’s history, to be double-digit is a dream.
“We will field a candidate in every single electorate for the first time, probably in over 20 years, I would guess.
“And I do think that the party infrastructure has grown and one of the things about that number of candidates is the ability to bring talent into Parliament has grown with it because you’ve just got a bigger pool of people who want to stand.”
At Labour’s Congress, many of the party’s senior leadership took shots at National and Act in what was a ramping up of negative rhetoric aimed at the other side.
While Seymour expects there won’t be much talk of other parties tomorrow, he accepts there will be interest from members about what the party will and won’t compromise on in a potential deal with National.
“That’s always the challenge of being a party in our position, right, because the risk is that you’re in a position where you’ve got enough supporters to disappoint but not enough political heft to deliver.”
Seymour has long espoused the approach of prioritising policy over positions, meaning the attraction of ministerial portfolios won’t distract focus from obtaining real policy outcomes.
Many have speculated Seymour is vying for the finance role but he has always denied it.
But in referencing Act’s Alternative Budget and pointing to the absence of something similar from National, Seymour may have shown his true intentions.
“We at this point have produced an Alternative Budget, so maybe we should do finance,” he says gleefully.
Asked who might be the minister, he replies: “Well, I’m the party’s current finance spokesperson, but you never know, it could be a competitive environment.”
