David Seymour bears heavy load

Act leader daily shows his superior talent but shepherding nine new MPs is tougher than flying solo

Three things are happening simultaneously that could improve the fortunes of David Seymour and the Act party.

Seymour is daily demonstrating his excellent grasp of public policy and politics.

The National Party is at a low ebb with leader Judith Collins marooned in a caucus that might not want her to fail but can’t seem to back her either.

And the wheels are seriously wobbling on the Government’s management of Covid-19.

The failures at the border revealed this week over Covid-19 testing and vaccinations were the worst of all the failures in terms of undermining confidence in the border systems.

On top of that, when the usually competent Covid Response and Education Minister Chris Hipkins starts insulting one of the largest schools in the country over its mouldy buildings, Hutt Valley High, it is a sign of a minister under pressure.

Seymour has been everywhere this week on every big issue and leading the charge on new ones.

Collins has clearly got the message that she has to do more to make an impact as leader and this week issued housing policy.

But Seymour’s free-wheeling encounters with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during question time are more eagerly anticipated than Collins’ efforts which are heavily scripted.

Seymour is one of a small handful of MPs able to think and speak forcefully on his feet — which was evident during the snap debate granted to him on the heavy-handed letter Finance Minister Grant Robertson sent to Air New Zealand.

There was simply no comparison between his contribution and that of National’s faltering shadow treasurer, Andrew Bayly, or even Collins’ snap debate speech last week on the transtasman bubble, which ran out of puff.

On Covid-19, Seymour was part of the health committee this week that put the heat on Health and MBIE public sector bosses over the MIQ guard with Covid who had not been tested since November last year.

National’s Chris Bishop led the charge but he and Seymour are good friends and instinctively work as the other’s wingman in such circumstances.

Act is sharper and more nimble than National on many issues. It is faster to react to a government position or action and stronger in its response.

Seymour is clearly carving out areas for himself that National is not able to do, either through lack of personnel or through its own policy history.

One such area is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) which the last National Government signed up to believing it would be another toothless declaration.

But as Seymour pointed to in questions to Ardern this week, the current Government has commissioned a Declaration Working Group to implement it.

The working group has come up with a blueprint for the declaration to be fully implemented by 2040, the bicentennial of the Treaty of Waitangi, but with no fanfare at all for a release or government response.

In a climate in which it is increasingly hazardous for Pa¯keha¯ to critique any aspect of Ma¯ori-related policy, Seymour is better placed than most to encourage debate.

He values his personal affiliation to Nga¯puhi, and is capable of asking questions within the context of robust public policy rather than coming off as “Ma¯ori-bashing”.

A bigger debate looming will be over free speech and the extent it is curtailed under promised strengthened hate laws.

Seymour has set himself up as the main free-speech advocate in the New Zealand Parliament.

To reinforce that, he is conducting a three-week speaking tour of the country on free speech in 13 centres.

Despite Seymour’s increasingly important place in New Zealand’s political discourse, he does not give a very good impression of enjoying the bigger role compared with his two previous terms as a solo MP.

Having returned in 2020 with nine new MPs, he wears his responsibility on his sleeve, being tutor, manager and political mentor.

None of them has yet done anything to disgrace himself or herself.

Firearms advocate Nicole McKee brought her knitting into the House to listen to the tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh this week — she was making a hot-waterbottle cover for an elderly neighbour.

Seymour turned that minor controversy to her advantage when he lambasted Labour’s Stuart Nash for calling her a “nutter” — for which he later apologised.

The new Act MPs are a work in progress — deputy leader Brooke van Velden less so because she has worked at Parliament.

They don’t necessarily have to do well in order for Seymour and Act to capitalise on National’s troubles.

But if they do badly, it will reflect on Seymour.

Seymour is bearing a big load in the battle of ideas against the Labour Government and the battle for dominance with National.