With Act polling high, David Seymour spoke with optimism about the upcoming election.
Video / Mark Mitchell
Act leader David Seymour's top priority for any coalition negotiations with the National Party is to strengthen the Covid-19 response, including more open borders and tracking risky people's movements with cellphone technology.
Charter schools, RMA reform, lowering debt and a more business-friendly environment - with no minimum wage increases, new public holidays or extra sick days - are also top of mind for any coalition talks, he said.
But while he is confident about Act's prospects - he claimed his internal polling shows up to 10 per cent support - he is less confident about National's.
"I think they've got to fight their own fight - shall we just say that," he said with a laugh when asked what his numbers said about National.
Seymour, along with top-ranked candidates Brook van Velden, Nicole McKee and Chris Baillie, has been running all over Wellington today to shore up support as polling day looms.
This morning he bought a Lotto ticket at North City Mall in Porirua, but did not indicate whether he was trying to ride his good fortune in the polls so far or whether it was a back-up plan in case Saturday's result didn't go as well as expected.
With polls putting the party as high as 8 per cent support, Act could have its caucus grow from one to 10 MPs.
That would mean Seymour would return to Parliament regardless of whether he held on to his seat of Epsom, which he is expected to win easily as National is only campaigning for the party vote there.
Act leader David Seymour and top-ranked candidates, from left, Nicole McKee, Chris Baillie and Brooke van Velden. Photo / Mark Mitchell
His own internal polling is showing as many as a dozen Act MPs could be in the next Parliament, he said, which would give Act more leverage if a National-Act government was on the cards.
"It's got to be getting smarter about Covid," Seymour said about his top policy priority.
That included boosting resources for public health units, more mask wearing, having an Epidemic Response Committee, and using cellphone technology to monitor some people's movements - as Taiwan does.
He wants the government to set the rules around managed isolation and quarantine for overseas travellers, which would see a more open border because any provider meeting those rules could host returnees.
"We should balance risk working with the private sector rather than the approach they've taken where if you're glamorous, if your'e a sailor, a film-maker, a rugby player, you get a [border] exemption."
Act leader David Seymour with the Lotto ticket he bought during his walkabout around North City Mall in Porirua. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"If you're trying to get people to work in the horticultural industry from a Covid-free country, you're out of luck."
National leader Judith Collins has said she wouldn't implement Act's flat tax, but Seymour said Act had ditched the flat tax in May.
It now wants a temporary cut to GST and to scrap the 30 per cent marginal tax rate on income above $70,000, meaning the 17.5 per cent rate would apply on income between $14,000 and $70,000.
Asked about the chances of his tax plan being adopted, he said Collins would need Act to command a parliamentary majority.
"She's going to have to sit down and have a little korero."
Seymour said being the only party to oppose gun law reforms was part of Act's rise, but it was also about charter schools, Labour's failed KiwiBuild, and people feeling let down by NZ First.
National's loose principles also saw voters coming to Act, he said.
"When it comes to standing on principle, one against 119 (votes on the first tranche of gun law reforms], they [National] didn't do that. When it comes to working constructively with every party to get stuff done from the opposition benches, such as End of Life Choice [Bill on euthanasia], they haven't done that.
"The market studies legislation, allowing the ComCom [Commerce Commission] to go round and interrogate an industry at huge cost for no reason - I think is abominable. The National Party voted for that. It's completely wrong. We opposed it."
Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill was given a boost today, with poll results showing majority support in each of the seven Māori electorates.
Commissioned by Māori Television and carried out by Curia Market Research, the results showed an average support of 53 per cent, ranging from 60 per cent in Te Tai Tonga to 50 per cent in Tāmaki-Makaurau.
Act leader David Seymour meeting 90-year-old Fay Morgan during his walkabout around North City Mall in Porirua. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Seymour spoke to the media while campaigning in Karori, which he heartily claimed to be a "hotspot for Act support".
"We're certain of it and we're about to find out."
Seymour then led his team through Karori Mall, but only ran into two people from one end of the small shopping centre to the other.
One was a supermarket worker who didn't say how he voted, and the other told Seymour he should campaign to expand the mall so his mall-run might include more public interaction.
He then led his team onto the street but found very few members of the public to greet.
He ducked into a bank for a selfie, handed a pamphlet to a worker in a bakery who couldn't vote as she wasn't a resident, and then came out of the local dairy with nothing but a Red Bull.
Just when it seemed like the streets of Karori offered no potential voters to sway, a cry of "David Seymour" came from across the road.
But the criers weren't about to boost Act's numbers. They were schoolkids.
