Thank You

If you are a Free Press reader, ACT’s record showing on Saturday is your success. Analysts tell us that Free Press readers are most likely to donate to ACT. You are the core of ACT’s support and we invite you to be the core of ACT’s fightback. Please feel free to share Free Press and grow our following.

The Missing Election

Covid-19 denied New Zealand an election on the issues, but they remain. Productivity growth remains in the tank. 1 in 10 kids is born on to a benefit. The country is 99 per cent uninhabited but building stuff is much harder than it needs to be. ACT now has a big team to campaign on the issues, and we can’t wait to get stuck in when Parliament resumes in a few weeks.

Opposing and Proposing

ACT will be both holding the Government accountable (why, today, does it want to give small business $300 million when Labour’s policies cost small business so much?) and proposing better ways forward (how can we make it easier to build a home and beat the gangs?). ACT’s balanced role as an opposition party will make a big impact.

Launch Maverick on Alert 5

Lovers of Top Gun will know there is always a spare aircraft below deck in case the carrier is attacked, Alert 5. Here come the Special Votes. The Sainte-Lague formula is tedious but every seat has a rank. Damien Smith is ranked 110, safely in Parliament. Miles McConway is on Alert 5, ranked 122. There are half a million special votes to be counted. If ACT does slightly better than other parties on the specials, Miles may make it.

The New Caucus

ACT supporters can be confident they have elected a high quality team. Commentators say they haven’t been in Parliament like it’s a bad thing. The experiences our caucus bring are worth more than a term in the House when it comes to serving in Parliament.

Brooke van Velden

Smart, liberal, likeable. Brooke carries the social mores of the millennial generation who don’t want to be socialist. A trained economist from a family of small business, Brooke is set to be the voice of a generation that could otherwise repeat the mistakes of the 70s. A name worth remembering.

Nicole McKee

In Nicole’s case, MP stands for magnetic personality. We have been in awe of Nicole’s connection and work rate, she was on the bus tour for 26 days straight. She is also Communicator of the Year 2020 who stood up for licensed firearm owners on principle in a calm and rational way that is a credit to New Zealand’s democracy. We are thrilled to have her in Parliament.

Chris Baillie

Chris had fifteen years as a cop, and fifteen as a teacher for students with special learning needs at Nayland College in Nelson. He owns a small business and employs 30 people, plus he plays jazz. How cool is that. Chris will being a wealth of much needed experience to the House of Representatives.

Simon Court

Everyone says there should be a blue-green party. Trouble is, the Greens are an anti-capitalist party and the blues pay lip service to the environment. Simon Court is a former Green voter. What changed? He’s an environmental engineer. He knows we are not short of regulations. We need innovation to be better environmental custodians, and often regulation stops environmentally friendly innovation.

James McDowall

32 year old James McDowall has a PhD, a young family, and speaks Chinese. Brimming with ability, James will make a big impact on the standard of debate in Parliament. He is a committed classical liberal, the second ‘native’ ACT MP. He was in ACT on Campus with David Seymour supporting Rodney Hide in 2005.

Karen Chhour

Karen wowed ACT’s Dare to be Different campaign launch with the bravest political speech we have seen. Nearly every MP says they want to reform CYFPs/CYFs/Oranga Tamariki. Karen Chhour lived it and is coming to Parliament to make a better world for children left down and out. Her own story of overcoming adversity to have a loved family of her own and a successful business is the embodiment of ACT values. She changed her future.

Mark Cameron

Mark is the authentic voice of rural New Zealand. He has farmed for 32 years. He gave a speech on the Auckland waterfront in a suit and red bands. He’s seen the calamity of rural mental health and understands what MPI inspectors coming on to your land means in practical terms. No party in recent times has had a professional farmer who actually milks cows every morning enter Parliament. While his family manages the farm, Mark will speak for all those who do.

Toni Severin

Toni is a long time ACT supporter, many time candidate and member of the Party’s Board of Trustees. She and her husband employ over 25 people in their business that operates across three cities. Toni is from the deep south and will bring the southern burr with ACT’s principles and a real understanding of what it means to make payroll every fortnight.

Damien Smith

Damien has serious corporate, investment, and finance experience. He is going to be the most knowledgeable member of Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee. When monetary policy is at the crossroads and debt is out of control, he is one of the best possible voices any party could be bringing to Parliament.

David Seymour

How good is David Seymour. Many are calling him one of the top two MPs, second only to the PM. Nobody in 100 years has entered Parliament alone, become a leader on day one, gone into government, then turned down being a Minister. Thousands will benefit at their most vulnerable stage from the compassion and choice of the End of Life Choice Act. He has grown ACT into the third largest party after the commentariat wrote him off. Now they are saying he won’t turn ACT into Parliament’s second party.