ACT New Zealand
Lock Labour out. Unlock New Zealand's potential.
David Seymour. Cut spending, cut red tape, tougher on crime and immigration.
Right. Smaller government. Cut and merge ministries, tougher sentences, weaker methane rules, deport offenders who are not citizens. Finish leftover Treaty claims, then wind up the Waitangi Tribunal. The smallest state of the parties here.
What they want
- Cut the public service to about 19 departments and 18 ministers. Need, not race, written into law so a breach can go to court. Scrap race-based hiring rules. No workplace karakia on the clock. No taxpayer money for workplace cultural or spiritual practices.
- A building consent cannot force someone to pay for or take part in a blessing. A spiritual claim on its own cannot block the consent. Heritage sites, urupā and Treaty settlement rights stay protected.
- Merge Māori, Pacific, women and youth ministries into Culture and Heritage.
- Deport serious offenders who are not citizens. Five-year wait for benefits for new residents.
- Scrap the visa that lets residents leave and come back for good with no time in the country. They would have to spend two years in five here to keep that travel right.
- After four months on Jobseeker, pay on a card for rent, food and power. No booze, smokes, gambling or cash.
- Cut foreign aid back to 2017 levels, except support for Ukraine. They say that saves about $283 million a year.
- Raise the Super age by three months a year, to 67 by 2035. Early access for people who spent a long stretch in hard physical work.
- Give Year 11 students $500 in a controlled investment account. They put that at about $35 million a year.
- Reassess disability support with a medical certificate. Their table brings mental-health claims back toward the pre-pandemic share, $653 million over four years.
- Cap state schools at three compulsory branded uniform items. Parents can buy plain shorts, skirts, pants and socks from any shop.
- Easier rules on farm methane. A visa for farm workers.
- Add burglary to three-strikes. Let teachers use reasonable force to remove disruptive kids.
- Put cameras on streets with a persistent loud-car problem. Ticket when a car goes over a set noise limit, even if no officer is there. Raise the penalty, including for loud stereos.
- Make university Student Services Fees a menu. Students pay only for the services they pick.
- Pay councils $1 per guest night from GST already collected. No extra charge on the hotel bill. That is their alternative to a bed tax.
- A Working with Children Card that follows the worker and is checked all the time, not every three years.
- Keep the cheaper school lunches. More change is likely after 2027.
- Keep climate rules with elected MPs, not judges. They voted for Goldsmith's lawsuit bar.
- Do not let councils treat extreme climate scenarios as forecasts when they restrict homes. They say the climate emergency is over.
- Build dedicated cancer centres in Auckland and Christchurch. Pay with private money, donations, and existing health spend. Scrap the cap on donation tax credits.
- Write three principles into the Constitution Act: Parliament is sovereign, the rule of law is fundamental, and everyone is equal before the law.
- Judges may use tikanga only where Parliament has said they can. Cabinet must spell out any Treaty duty before a new bill is drafted.
- Add a property right to the Bill of Rights so courts can flag a law that clashes with it.
- If you hold qualifying digital coins as a personal investment for a year, do not tax the gain. Keep taxing professional traders. Exempt tiny everyday purchases paid in those coins. Clearer rules for stablecoins, and a sandbox for financial start-ups.
- A separate fishing zone for the Hauraki Gulf, with local catch limits. Permanently ban scallop-dredging in beds that are already closed. A combined daily bag of 10 for shellfish that do not already have their own limit.
- Stop using road-user money for sculptures and decorative extras beside new roads. Publish the cheapest safe design next to the preferred one. Ring-fence road-maintenance money so new projects cannot raid it.
- Finish leftover historical Waitangi Tribunal claims, then wind the Tribunal up. Stop it judging today's government decisions.
- Let young workers start on a lower training rate than today's starting-out wage, for their first year with a boss.
- Make union-fee deductions from pay voluntary. Shorten the window to take a personal-grievance case.
- Keep the big power companies whole. Let households sell surplus solar or battery power to any buyer at a market price. Let private investors build new grid connections.
- Make it faster to open a new supermarket. One place for consents and liquor licences. Accept food labels already used in the UK, Europe or the US. Leave the two big chains whole.
- Stop taxing the earnings inside KiwiSaver. End the yearly government top-up for people whose boss already pays in. The 11 October fiscal plan puts that at about $2.4 billion over four years.
- Let a landlord use a new loss on a rental to cut the tax on other income, including wages. That covers existing homes and new builds. Losses already locked under the old rule stay there. They say it costs $264 million in the first year and $303 million in year four.
Things to watch
- Seymour backed drug tests for people on a job benefit. He called a lower rate after two years a cop-out. ACT would still pay rent, food and power on a card after four months.
- Their fiscal plan lifts the Super age by three months a year, to 67 by 2035, with early access for hard physical work. NZ First will not raise the age.
- Seymour wants to wind the Waitangi Tribunal up after leftover historical claims. NZ First now wants to scrap it immediately. Luxon has not locked either.
- Seymour called National's medicines plan a win. ACT would cut foreign aid to 2017 levels, except Ukraine, saving about $283 million a year.
- They still want a three-year freeze of the adult minimum wage. Luxon ruled that out. Peters now wants the adult floor to rise by at least inflation each year for three years.
- Seymour would let a new rental loss cut the tax on wages, for existing homes and new builds. They put the cost at $264 million in year one, rising to $303 million in year four. Hipkins has locked today's interest deductions and has not adopted this.
What they promised, and what happened
They are in government. These are the gaps.
- They campaigned on a public vote to rewrite Treaty principles. Parliament voted the bill down 112 to 11. On 23 August they released a new one-law package instead. They are not re-running the old bill.
- They signed the coalition deals that dumped Smokefree 2025 and cut tax on heated tobacco. Cabinet agreed.
Who pays
Raised $2.4 million in 2025. Named 2026 gifts over $20,000 add up to about $2.4 million. That is not a full-year total. Rank Group $200,000. Van Den Brink Karaka $150,000. Brian Cartmell $100,000. Jeff Douglas gave $25,000 on 6 October. Same Remuera address as Jeffrey Graeme Douglas, who gave National $60,250. Multum Corporation Limited $50,000 on 18 August. Gazette names Craig Heatley as director. That is his company, not a personal filing.