The 2023 General election is a make-or-break election for the Conservative ACT Party in New Zealand. Currently, the left-wing progressive Green-Alliance Party is in control of Parliament. However, the ACT Party has a young, vibrant leader in David Seymour, who revitalized the party nationally. While other conservative movements worldwide embrace populism, Seymour adopts a more prudent political philosophy: conservative libertarianism.

ACT formed as New Zealand’s premier conservative party in 1994, embracing policy positions such as lower taxation (Flat Tax), cutting wasteful spending, harsher sentencing on violent criminals, and ending divisive race-based preferences.

The party was dormant primarily until Seymour took control as party leader in 2014. His growing popularity and personal charisma boosted ACT from 1% to 8% in the polls, helping it capture the most significant electoral win to date in 2020. The party won 10 seats and increased their popular vote to 7.6%. Recent polls show that ACT could win at least 15 seats and possibly more this October; all this is possible due to Seymour’s invigorating leadership.

Seymour is only 40 but has experienced a life-long political journey. He first became interested in politics at the University of Auckland and became a party leader for ACT on campus. His first run for Parliament occurred in 2005 against Labor Party member and former prime minister Helen Clark, which resulted in a loss. He sharpened his political knowledge by moving to Canada for four years to work at the pro-austerity think tank Frontier Centre for Public Policy. He studied free market economists such as Thomas Hazlett, Karl Popper, and F.A. Hayek.

Seymour was able to bounce back as he ran for Parliament again and won in 2014, making him the only member of ACT elected; he would be their sole member for six years. The party suffered during his time as they finished with less than one percent in the 2017 election and saw the Labor Party reclaim control of Parliament. However, this did not stop Seymour from advancing his conservative agenda in that period.

During the Hong Kong protests in 2019, David Seymour defended the protestors’ rights in New Zealand as the country shares the Pacific region with them. He even spoke at a pro-Hong Kong rally at the University of Auckland, criticized the Chinese consulate in Auckland, and defended free speech, echoing similar tones to Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher during the Cold War.

In 2019, legislation passed to confiscate guns after the Christchurch shootings 119-1, with Seymour being the lone vote against it, citing a rush to judgment to blame all gun owners for something they did not cause. Seymour was also part of a select committee to oversee the government’s action in regards to COVID-19 policies.

When the Delta variant spread in August of 2021, Seymour presented ACT’s COVID-19 3.0 strategy, calling for the government to move away from its eradication strategy and instead end lockdowns and erring on the side of freedom by isolating those diagnosed sick. Seymour endorsed regular testing for unvaccinated workers instead of mandates and the loosening of restrictions for people entering from other countries, thus ensuring New Zealand could remain safe and accessible for all.

Seymour engages in cultural and social issues as well. Recently, he pushed back against New Zealand’s problem with identity politics. The liberals in Parliament advocate for special privileges to the Mﾄ｛ri, indigenous people of the island state, and support altering the founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, to include a co-governance between the Mﾄ｛ri leaders and Parliament.

Seymour rejects this notion, claiming that it is devaluing classical liberal values of universal human rights by giving other citizens privileges based on their race. Of course, Seymour’s critics have scolded him for this and even called him a “racist,” but Seymour has Mﾄ｛ri blood in him. He has made an appropriate rebuttal saying, “I’m not racist. I’m not prejudiced against people based on their background,” and that New Zealand stands on the rule of law and democracy.

Per Seymour, the basis of New Zealand’s common law is human rights, which is “incompatible with regarding a person primarily as an identity before we consider their humanity.” The ACT Party, under Seymour’s leadership, is not solely running on economic issues, but realizing they need to meet voters on all matters to be successful.

How well the ACT Party will do in October is to be determined. Still, David Seymour is shifting the political dynamic in New Zealand away from the liberal dominant Green-Alliance Party. His youth, experience, media presence, and classical liberal politics should inspire conservatives everywhere. The current world leaders are rather unsympathetic to the conservative cause, but there is hope that a libertarian-conservative leader like David Seymour can make freedom great again.

Image: Mathmo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.