The celebrations of ACT’s extraordinary victory are expected to continue until late into the night.
After years of life support by Epsom voters, ACT leader David Seymour has brought his party back from the dead.
ACT polled 8 percent – an unthinkable result just three years ago – thanks to disgruntled national voters and former NZ First supporters.
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He will see nine other MPs join Seymour in Parliament.
In 2017, ACT garnered 0.5% of the vote, or just 13,075 votes, surviving only thanks to Seymour’s seat in Epsom, which has long been owned by ACT, thanks to national supporters voting strategically.
Holding the seat allowed ACT to retain a seat in parliament even though it fell well below the 5 percent threshold for the previous five elections.
ACT’s escape from political oblivion à la Houdini is entirely due to Seymour; three years ago, he was still a virtual stranger, with almost zero name recognition.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Tips
ACT party leader David Seymour and party candidates including Brooke van Velden to his immediate right.
But an unlikely entertainment show Dancing with the stars, and his defense of euthanasia through his end-of-life choice law, raised the profile of the ACT leader and his position with voters.
However, Seymour has also been assiduous in gobbling up small but important constituencies, including the influential gun lobby, after being the only MP to vote against Labor’s gun buy-back laws, which were hastily passed by Parliament following the Christchurch Mosque murders.
His defense of controversial speakers under the banner of free speech laws also cemented him as the anti-establishment voice, wooing many former NZ First supporters.
Seymour brings with him a bunch of unfamiliar faces to Parliament, though his number two Brooke van Velden is well known in Parliament for her work guiding end-of-life choice law.
ROSA WOODS / Stuff
ACT Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden will bring a motion to Parliament asking MPs to debate and vote on human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, China.
Third-row MP Nicole McKee also has some public visibility through her advocacy as the head of the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners.
Others include a high school teacher, self-proclaimed kayaker and bridge builder, independent businesswoman, farmer and mental health worker.
Academic Grant Duncan said ACT supporters attending the recent Things-A Massey poll of over 70,000 voters suggested that Seymour’s support was heavily skewed toward men (79.5 percent of those who took the poll vs. 61.2 percent overall), and there was a slightly higher representation of business owners.
Former UnitedFuture chief Peter Dunne has said Seymour should enjoy the moment while he can, as there will be a tough road ahead with his untested first-time MP caucus.
Dunne should know: He took UnitedFuture from zero to hero almost overnight in 2002, following a successful leaders’ debate that catapulted seven more MPs to Parliament with him.
But three years later, the caucus was in disarray as disagreements emerged between Dunne and United’s Christian faction over issues such as the controversial “spanking” ban.
Dunne said Seymour’s biggest challenge would be lowering expectations for his new MPs.
“People when they’re first elected think they were elected on their own merits, on their own ideas, and their workhorses and everything else can now be sued. In fact, you need to be disciplined, understand what the team’s branding is and stick to it.
They would also come under personal pressure, especially those who did not expect to be in Parliament until recently.
“There are going to be some issues that they are going to have to deal with, for example quitting their current job, getting their families used to the idea that they are going to be absent several days a week and that’s not something you can do. done part-time; there are a lot of challenges below the surface that will need to be overcome and resolved soon enough if they are to operate effectively.
Dunne said he believes Seymour has done a good job over the past three years, in part because of the end-of-life choice law, but also by being so “stubborn and on the message” .
But the test would be to make sure that last night’s success was “not unique.”
History suggests that may not be easy: At its peak in the 1990s, ACT was getting a poll of around seven percent.
But his support began to crumble as National’s fortunes recovered, first under former boss Don Brash (who then led ACT for a brief period), and later through the John Key and Bill years. English.
ACT’s collapse was also accelerated by a series of scandals and its loss of leadership following the retirement of former ACT leader Richard Prebble.
