Speech: David Seymour at Rally '26

Lock Labour Out, Unlock New Zealand’s Potential

David Seymour, ACT Leader
June 28, 2026
Shed 10, Auckland

Thank you for buying a ticket to the start of ACT’s 2026 Campaign.

ACT has two missions this year.

One: Lock Labour Out.

Two: Unlock New Zealand’s potential.

We’re here because the ACT Party, and only the ACT Party, can deliver on both missions.

No other Party can say the next three things:

• We’re not Labour

• We’ve never worked with Labour

• We’re not Labour-lite

I don’t really want to talk about other parties, but check them against the statements.

Hana Haka Party and Te Pāti Māori, worked with Labour. We always said they stood for division, now they’ve divided themselves. In half. Three years, six MPs, and the best they could do for Māori is a haka on TikTok.

The only good policy they support is charter schools, and we had to do that one for them. With half a dozen Māori charter schools, ACT has done more to unlock Māori potential than the party which named itself after the race, which, by the way, is disgraceful.

Their toxic mix of racism and socialism has no place in our society, let alone in charge of it.

We need one law for all, equal rights for every New Zealander, and a country that pulls together instead of tearing itself apart. We must lock them out of power.

Then there’s Business Class Chlöe from the Greens, who work with Labour. They’ve done about as much for the environment as the Māori Party have for Māori.

They’ve given up saving Pukekos so they can save Palestinians instead. When they’re not leading antisemitic chants, they’re flying business class paid for by corporate lobbyists.

When they’re not helping themselves to other people’s clothes, they’re dreaming about helping themselves to other people’s money. They just can’t calculate how much.

They say another $5.5 billion of spending each year will fix poverty, but they’ve tried this before.

They spent $76 billion in 2017 with Labour and NZ First. In 2023, the Government spent $136 billion. That means they increased spending by $60 billion in six years.

Only Green Party accounting says $60 billion of extra spending didn’t solve poverty, but another $5.5 billion somehow will.

The Greens are funny, but they have a dark side. Listen carefully to their words.

They say their new taxes ‘will only affect 0.3 per cent of people.’ As if picking on people is OK if they’re the minority. That’s not just morally wrong, it’s untrue.

Every tax grows over time. If you think they’re taxing ‘other people,’ it’s only a matter of time until ‘other people’ includes you.

The Green Party’s message can be summed up in one line: ‘your problems are caused by other people’s success, but if you vote for us we’ll tax them and give it to you.’

Tall poppy syndrome is the dark underbelly of our national character, but the Greens want to make it official Government policy. New Zealand needs the opposite.

We need more billion-dollar companies. More Xeros and Zurus, more Halters and Rocket Labs. That’s how you get high paying jobs, and success is contagious. One billion-dollar company can inspire the next one when people see what’s possible.

We must lock the Greens out of power.

Then there’s Cynical Chris Hipkins and the Labour Party themselves.

Every policy is a feel-good headline about something being ‘free,’ with no idea how they’ll pay for it. At this point, they’re up to $18 billion of unfunded promises.

Their bumper sticker politics is cynical because it shows how little hope they have for our country.

They believe New Zealanders have given up, and we’re ready to accept discount bus fares and free doctor visits you’ll never get an appointment for, because that’s as good as New Zealand can get.

The word for that kind of politics is cynical. Three years in power at any cost, and Labour costs a lot.

In Government they blew up the economy, raised debt by $100 billion, but the costs of Labour are not only financial. They divided us by race and started a stampede of Kiwis overseas, just as soon as they let us out of our houses and opened the border.

I have a prediction. If Labour get back in more of us will be living where Jacinda now lives. In Australia and beyond.

That’s why our first mission must be to lock out Labour, but let’s keep going through the Parties.

There’s Wily Winnie and New Zealand First. We all know they’ve worked with Labour, especially the Oil and Gas industry.

There’s a cartoon of Winston on the wall in Parliament. It shows him playing 1st 5/8, standing behind the scrum. The No. 8 pops up to ask the halfback, ‘how do you know which way he’ll go?’

That cartoon is thirty years old, but it’s still a great question. Would you bet your economic future he won’t run down the blindside again? Soon we may all be forced to take the bet.

That’s Labour and those who would work with Labour. Who’s left?

Clever Chris and the National Party.

Are they Labour Lite? Maybe.

It turns out they can also run left or right, but look at the difference being in Government with ACT can make:

They voted for Jacinda’s gun laws. In Government with ACT, they’re voting to replace them. Let’s hear it for our new deputy Nicole McKee who’s led that campaign for seven years.

They voted for the Zero Carbon Act. Now with ACT they’ve voted to halve the methane targets so farmers can keep farming without significant change. Let’s hear it for Mark Cameron, who’s led that campaign since he entered Parliament six years ago.

They introduced earthquake strengthening laws that cost tens of billions for no benefit, now with ACT they’ve voting to reverse it.

They introduced the bureaucratic Resource Management Act, and defended it for 35 years. Now we’re replacing it with new laws based on property rights. Let’s hear it for Simon Court, Parliament’s only Civil Engineer, who’s done the grunt work on that law.

What changed? On all these laws ACT stood alone in opposition for a decade.

On guns, the Zero Carbon Act, and the earthquake law, we saw the power of one. ACT voted against the whole Parliament. 119-1.

Well, from one, many. New Zealand is a better place because of every single one of you who voted for us to fight for common-sense in greater numbers.

When I was elected as a sole ACT MP in Government with National, serious RMA reform was not an option. Instead National voted with the Māori Party to make the RMA even worse with Iwi Participation Agreements.

The difference is ACT at the Cabinet table, and you did it by putting us there.

All of you who voted ACT for real change nearly three years ago, you are changing this country for the better.

Those are some of the things we’ve done.

I haven’t talked about Brooke’s employment, health and safety, and Holidays Act reforms to make life easier for workers, small business and farmers. Let’s hear it for Brooke van Velden and wish her well for her future outside the asylum of Parliament.

I haven’t talked about Nicole’s changes to Anti Money Laundering rules, firearms prohibition laws for gang members, or the liquor laws. Let’s hear it again for our new deputy.

I haven’t mentioned Karen getting kids in care to behave, and youth crime being down by 25%, without a single bucket of KFC. Why do they listen to Karen? Because they can tell when an adult really cares. Let’s hear it for Karen Chhour, the first Minister for Children who’s visited every Oranga Tamariki facility.

I haven’t mentioned Andrew’s Farm Environment Plans, his success on halving methane targets, or his repulsion of every biosecurity incursion including wilding pines, or his crack-down on dog tethering. Let’s hear it for the only real farmer in Government.

I haven’t mentioned Parmjeet’s crusades against racist courses at the University, or knee-jerk attempts to ban social media. She’s copped a lot of the vilest abuse but stayed strong every day. Let’s hear it for Dr Parmar, scientist, businesswoman, and campaigner.

I haven’t mentioned Cam standing up for fishers, getting rid of council voting rights for the non-elected, or standing up for the value of tradies. Let’s hear it for Parliament’s only Licensed Building Practitioner, Cameron Luxton.

I haven’t mentioned Todd’s work to pick up the baton of assisted dying, or his relentless drive to defend free speech from the overreach of the Broadcasting Standards Authority and professional regulators.

Todd is also the Parliamentary Private Secretary for Health. He deserves the credit for the revolutions in Pharmac and Medsafe making more medicines available. Let’s hear it for the pocket rocket, Todd Stephenson.

I haven’t mentioned Laura’s successful campaign to get the whole parliament voting for her deepfake porn bill. She’s shown how school uniforms could be affordable under the next Government. She’s stood for democratic freedom and been banned from visiting China for her troubles. Let’s hear it for our MC today, Laura McClure.

In my own area, school attendance has increased year on year every term but one. Over 360,000 patients have benefited from increased medicine access, including 46 decisions to fund or widen cancer medicines.

The Ministry for Regulation has got the Regulatory Standards Act into law. It’s unlocked at least $10 of economic value for every dollar it's cost the taxpayer, by cutting red tape for everyone from hemp farmers to hairdressers.

Charter Schools are unlocking the potential of young Kiwis by showing them education can be different. Children who’d been given up on, and felt like giving up on themselves, are finding a new passion for learning and building real self-esteem.

Those are some of the things we’ve done, but ACT has two jobs in Government.

Number one, do as many good things as possible.

Number two, stop as many stupid things as we can.

Now, we can’t stop everything.

When I hear my colleagues boast that taxpayers have funded the world’s biggest mussel farm, I ask myself “why has nobody else built one so big?”

When I hear my colleagues say taxing donations to charities won’t reduce their funding because rich people don’t care about taxes, I ask myself “how did they get so rich without caring about money?” That law will need to be reversed before it kneecaps charities next tax year.

Another colleague has, and I’m not making this up, passed a law so every new TV must be pre-installed with the apps for TV1, TV3 and Māori TV. We can’t stop everything.

Some people don’t like the LNG import terminal. I don’t want to break confidentiality, but I want to reassure you that was the least crazy idea on offer. I can’t tell you the other ones and, trust me, you don’t want to know.

I can tell you there would be at least three new taxes without ACT in Government, we have made this a Government of no new taxes. The Government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

We saw the disaster of Labour, New Zealand First and the Greens banning oil and gas. It scared off investment for a generation.

Without ACT, more industries would have been attacked, over-regulated, even broken up by colleagues who want to be heroes but would only bring destruction.

They would give the world a repeat of the oil and gas message: New Zealand is not a safe country to invest in.

Then there’s wasteful spending. We calculate ACT Ministers have saved $14 billion for the taxpayer. That’s $57,000 for every person who gave their party Vote to ACT. Not a bad deal when you consider it’s free to vote for us.

They’ll never admit it, but Brooke saved the Budget with her pay equity reforms last year.

This year, another ACT idea saved Budget 2026.

The Government is on a path to surplus by 2028 thanks to a promise. A promise that there will be a smaller bureaucracy with fewer government departments.

Has anyone here heard that before somewhere?

Once again ACT is setting the agenda for a smaller, more efficient Government.

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made. I believe ACT has shown the courage to deliver for New Zealanders. We’ve cut the waste to grow the country.

That doesn’t mean the last three years have been easy.

They haven’t always listened to us, and sometimes only half listened.

One of the biggest failings we have is on welfare dependency. It’s not because of the responsible Minister. She is among the Government’s most competent.

The problem is the lack of ambition, and the results speak for themselves.

I know some will say there are no jobs. Here is a readout from a small business owner I met this week.

This lady brought up two kids alone, built her gardening business from the ground up.

She can’t get workers. She thought maybe it was her. She went to an agency, paid hundreds of dollars for advertising. At the end of the week she got sent a report:

“Gardener (Job number xyz…) has generated the following interest.

812 views.

80 people have applied.

15 passed initial screening.

2 were sent through. We’re waiting for 3 applicants to respond.

The remaining applicants were screened out mainly due to not having relevant experience, or they’re expecting $30+ per hour (for no experience) or $50-$60 per hour (experienced candidates).

For the record she pays $35 an hour and cannot get people to work for her.

Some might say that’s tough, but it’s $1,400 a week full time, $70k a year.

It’s gotta be better than being on a benefit, so why stay on one?

One clue is the methamphetamine statistics. Somewhere in this city is a facility where people test sewage for methamphetamine. They’re literally looking for P in our pee.

In the last two years it’s doubled, to 33 kilograms a week. All of it is imported, none of the importers are AML compliant. Think about that next time you’re filling out AML forms.

Our gardening business lady thinks P is the reason people won’t work. Apply for a job to keep their benefit? Maybe.

I met a couple the same day who run a building company. They are registering as accredited employers with Immigration New Zealand so they can employ migrants. They have given up on Kiwis.

They get people who come in and work like trojans, then at 2pm they nod off. It’s the P again.

The Government can search containers at the border and track suspicious yachts but, despite its best efforts, drugs are winning the war on drugs.

What we need to do is stop paying people to stay at home taking them.

Unemployment is 5.3 per cent, that is high. But 12.7 per cent of working aged New Zealanders are on a benefit. The gap is too big to explain.

Let me put it another way, for every seven working-aged Kiwis working, there is one on a benefit.

That’s not a country reaching its potential. It’s too many people sleeping the day away as their neighbours leave for work to pay them.

Last election ACT campaigned on welfare reform. We said three things:

• If you are on a work-ready benefit for more than four months, you get your rent or mortgage paid and a plastic card that only works on staple items.
  
  

• If you have more children on sole parent support, you get your rent or mortgage paid and a plastic card that only works on staple items. As we said at the time, we can’t have one-in-eight Kiwis starting life on a benefit.
  
  

• If you are deemed not work-ready, a doctor employed by the Ministry for Social Development will see you and help you get ready. They won’t be signing you off to get you out of their clinic, their whole job will be to get you back to work.

These policies have been half implemented under this Government. You only get the plastic card if you don’t show up to meetings.

We don’t need people to show up to meetings, we need to stop paying people to stay home.

The law has been passed for a pool of approved doctors, but they’re a last resort. That is good progress. It shows ACT is making a difference, but the Government has not gone far enough.

The amazing thing is we’re spending $837 million per year on back-to-work schemes, but progress is meagre.

ACT will be campaigning to take our policies all the way this election. The logic is simple. If we want people to work, we need to stop paying them to stay home.

Only when able bodied people are expected to work before more workers are imported will we get a glimpse of New Zealand’s true potential.

Over the last few years, firms, farms and families have had to dig deep. We’ve all had to tighten our belts and do the hard work to try and overcome Labour’s debt driven, inflationary, racially divisive mess.

It hurt when we started to feel that we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but events overseas, beyond our control, blacked that light out and left us in despair.

If you told me the United States would start a trade war last April and an actual war that doubled the price of diesel this year, I would have thought you were paranoid.

Well, here we are, but finger pointing doesn’t make anyone feel better. Despite the many wins I’ve described, it feels at times like we take one step forward and two steps back.

Change has happened, and we are moving in the right direction, even if it has been slower than many of us would have liked.

In ACT's view, the next step we have to take has to be bolder, braver, and faster, and build on the successes that have been achieved, and to deliver the Government people want.

For ninety years we’ve had a deal called the welfare state. The deal is supposed to be that you pay about a third of your income, and the Government solves all the problems we can’t solve individually.

It is supposed to create conditions where well-paid, fulfilling jobs exist for everyone. Where our welfare system is a hand up, not a hand out. 

Where our next generation is educated with life skills that will set them up to succeed, in schools that bring out the best in every child.

Where we can be certain to receive the healthcare that we need, by skilled and caring practitioners. 

Where crime doesn’t pay and consequences are taken seriously.

Most of all, that those that work hard still get rewarded for it, with more of your hard earned money staying with you.

That’s what the welfare state is supposed to do, but we know it hasn’t been working.

No matter how much money goes in, things don’t improve. It almost seems spending more money makes things worse.

Waiting lists get longer as the demands of the health budget sweep all before it.

Students feel less prepared for the world. Local pass rates somehow rise, even as students do worse against international benchmarks.

While most use welfare temporarily as job insurance, hundreds of thousands use it to sleep their life away while their neighbours go to work.

We lock the bad people up, but too many reoffend. If we can’t turn them around when they’re a captive audience, when can we?

Getting anything more complicated than a school classroom built seems impossible, and even that can be difficult.

All this poor delivery means people have never been more frustrated with Government, no matter who’s in power.

Does anyone think we’re getting good service from Government departments? Every year more of your money is invested in the public service, yet the frontline services that matter get worse.

That’s because your taxes get tied up in the wrong place. Money absorbed by a complicated structure is money that can’t be returned to taxpayers, can’t pay down debt, can’t reach the nurse, teacher or police officer on the frontline, and can’t build the infrastructure the country needs. That is the hidden tax everyone pays for worse public services.

Over the last three years I’ve had new insight into why the public service doesn’t deliver.

Government is much crazier than I realised.

Some people will think this is beltway Wellington stuff that doesn’t affect everyday people’s lives but, believe me, we will not get the Government we deserve while its organised the way it is.

When I say it’s crazy, I mean it’s crazy that a country our size has 267 regulatory bodies. We have 43 government departments. We have 28 government ministers. How did such a small country get such a complicated government?

Norway, a similar size, has 17 departments and 20 ministers.

Ireland, population five million, has 18 departments and 15 ministers.

Singapore, the same population again, has 16 departments and 18 ministers.

The size of New Zealand’s Government isn’t intentional; it’s grown like a hedge you forgot about. ACT said time and again it needs a trim, we have too many departments, too many ministers, too many bureaucrats.

Now it is official Government policy to reduce the number of departments. It should have happened two years ago, but we’ve been proved right in the end.

It is now official Government policy to reduce the size of the bureaucracy back to 2017 levels by 2029. It’s not as fast as ACT would do it, but does anyone think this would be happening without ACT?

That’s the departments and the bureaucracy, but what about the ministers?

If we want to make New Zealand affordable, we need to start at the top.

The most far-reaching reforms in our history happened under a cabinet of 16. Today we have 30. Ten don’t go to the Cabinet meetings, but participate in sub committees.

We’ve had a look at overseas Governments and found that more spending ministers means bigger deficits. When many ministers each control part of the budget but the cost falls on every taxpayer, each has an incentive to grow their own spending while bearing only a fraction of the cost.

Some ministers have seven portfolios. When you’re up against a bureaucrat who's been there 30 years, seen five governments come and go, and specialises in one subject, it’s already an unfair fight.

No minister with seven subject areas can win seven unfair fights.

But, being fair to the departments, they report to multiple ministers.

The head of the Ministry of Education reports to three ministers.

The head of the Department of Internal Affairs reports to seven different ministers.

The head of MBIE reports to 23, yes 23, ministers. I am one of a tiny handful who is not theoretically in charge of MBIE.

It gets worse. No elected minister gets to choose the head of any department. They are selected as part of a priesthood called the Public Service Commission that makes Opus Dei look open and transparent.

If you wonder why Government seems so unresponsive, and no amount of money makes anything better, look no further than the spaghetti head at the top.

Today we’re releasing two election policies. I’ve talked about our approach to welfare, here is our second.

ACT will campaign for a Cabinet of 18 ministers. We’ve presented a list of departments and ministers that make sense.

We will be taking a simple message to any coalition negotiation, 18 ministers 19 departments.

Each department should report to one minister, who would be fully accountable for its budget, objectives, and outcomes.

Our plan removes the Public Service Commission. Chief Executives should be selected and employed by the minister. It should be clear in a democracy, the buck stops with the person who’s elected, not an unelected priesthood.

All of this may sound like a Wellington beltway issue, but believe me, the fish rots from the head.

We won’t get better results when everybody and nobody is in charge of everything and nothing.

We won’t make life affordable or restore faith in our democratic system of Government if we don’t make Government smaller, and more responsive to people’s needs, starting at the very top.

For each thing that Government absolutely must do, we need a clear line of responsibility. One minister, one budget, one department, one accountability for results.

We won’t unlock New Zealand’s potential if Government sucks up a third of our money without getting results.

We won’t pretend that this will be easy, and know that the challenges are complex, but we think that New Zealand is worth fighting for.

There is no reason why New Zealand shouldn’t be the happiest, healthiest, wealthiest country on the planet.

We live on stunning islands rich in natural resources.

We have a national character that is respected around the world for being decent people, for doing what we say we’re going to do.

We have a free and democratic society with British institutions that are the envy of the world.

So what’s holding us back? As the greatest New Zealander said, ‘it’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.’

We are held back by bloated inefficient Government. Today is about how we fix that.

We are held back by a labyrinth of red tape and stupid rules. The Ministry for Regulation has fixed that in some areas, and ACT will be announcing next steps on the campaign.

We are held back by our obsession with identity politics. We’re sick of arguing about who got here first.

Again, ACT will be the clearest and bravest party on one law for all and one future together.

Only one party can say three things:

• We’re not Labour

• We’ve never worked with Labour

• We’re not Labour-lite

Our team has spent the last three years doing it.

We’ve cut the waste and red tape. We’ve stopped racist policy to assert our fundamental rights to equal dignity no matter when our ancestors arrived.

Now I hope you’ll do it.

Tell your friends, your family, your colleagues and anyone else you encounter for the next 132 days.

Campaign with our candidates, put a sign on your fence, donate to our campaign so we can advertise past the media.

Be the tireless minority setting alight brushfires of freedom in our fellow New Zealanders’ minds.

Because this country does not belong to the socialists. We must lock them out before they blow up the joint in a hail of mediocrity.

It belongs to those who try, who believe a better tomorrow is in our hands, that our efforts can make a difference.

Let’s get out there and campaign like hell to unlock this great country’s potential.