Do we like David Seymour?
Our score: 3 out of 10. Real harm in the Treaty bill, the push to scrap net zero and the trans policy fights, with a long, genuine fight for assisted dying set against it.
Seymour has led ACT since 2014 and is now Deputy Prime Minister. He calls himself a libertarian and told The Spinoff that becoming deputy PM was “one of the worst possible outcomes”. His pitch is a smaller state, deregulation and “one law for all”, and he has stood in every election since 2005.
His biggest stoush was the Treaty Principles Bill, which would have rewritten how the Treaty of Waitangi's principles are defined. It drew huge protests, and in April 2025 Parliament voted it down 112 to 11, with only ACT in favour. Seymour argued “the idea that your race matters is a version of a bigger problem”; opponents read it as stripping Māori of rights. He also said ACT may bring the idea back.
On trans issues, he has told Gay Express that trans people should be treated with kindness, and that he would have voted for marriage equality. He has also defended Speak Up For Women after councils barred it from meeting on council property over its trans-exclusionary views. In late 2025 he backed the Government halting new puberty blocker prescriptions, saying the evidence is uncertain. Supporters see caution on medical evidence; many trans people and advocates see a policy that targets them.
On the planet, ACT's September 2026 policy is to scrap the net zero target and repeal the Zero Carbon Act. It would also return carbon auction revenue to New Zealanders as a refund. Seymour says “New Zealand's climate policy is broken”. Nobody reported by that article criticised the plan, but it is a pretty clear step back from the emissions fight this page cares about.
His style is a recurring problem. In June 2025 he posted about opponents of the Regulatory Standards Bill as “Victim of the Day” and accused them of “Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome”. Wellington's mayor complained to the PM, alleging a campaign of online harassment, and Labour's leader backed that view. Seymour said there was no breach and he was having fun. In April 2026 he also pushed the line that Chris Hipkins' vaccine explanation “simply defies belief”, which is hardball politics rather than anti-vax.
The good stuff is real. Seymour spent years driving the End of Life Choice Act through Parliament, and in 2020 voters backed it in a referendum with about 65 per cent support in preliminary results. He called it a “momentous moment”. Whatever you think of him otherwise, that was a long fight for people at the end of their lives.