ACT Conference, the rise of the hard right in NZ and dreams of 15%

Election 2026: ACT leader David Seymour sets 15 percent target, blasts Te Pāti Māori

ACT leader David Seymour has set a goal of 15 percent of the vote at the 2026 election.

 

TDB has spent half a decade warning that ACT’s double digit support represent a dangerous polarisation of NZ politics.

I warned the woke activists that if they started a Free Speech Culture War they would accidentally trigger the dormant faultline of ACT and lo and fucking behold, that’s exactly what happened!

The moment the woke started their free speech cancel culture, ACT started rising in the polls to the point they are now the third largest party.

The middle class woke activists have handed ACT the culture war ammunition that they are now devastatingly using against the Left.

Good one Wokies, could you PLEASE go back to sleep?

The rise of the Hard Right in NZ, thanks to the middle class woke activists, has seen an assault on the Treaty, has seen ACT pimping for the legal meth market, has seen ACT pimping for the pharmaceutical industry, has seen ACT pimping for the gun nuts and has seen ACT pimping for the counter productive punitive law and order fetish club.

The reality is that Luxon represents the weakest Prime Minister in modern NZ political history and the danger for National is that the social media hate algorithms that are polarising the electorate will empower the hard right fringes while hollowing out the middle voter.

We are seeing this dynamic at play in the polls right now.

ACT have zero interest in being moderate and will continue to play to racist culture war talking points which threatens National.

ACT getting 8.64% was a danger warning of how extreme the Right have become and as National continues to weakly govern, David Seymour will continue to over shine the very dull Luxon.

The ATLAS Network’s involvement in the idealogical structure of ACT was revealed this year but didn’t get beyond Māori Media.

Joshua Drummond’s blog on David Seymour’s refusal to acknowledge any links with the far right Libertarian Think Tank funded by petrol oligarchs and wealthy far right groups is a must read…

To recap, quickly: The Atlas Network is a “think tank that creates think tanks“; a global network of more than 500 right-wing think tanks and lobby groups. New Zealand members of Atlas include the Taxpayers’ Union and the New Zealand Initiative (formed from a merger of two think tanks, one of which was the infamous Business Roundtable.)

Seymour’s extraordinary denial came during a recording of Mata with Mihingarangi Forbes on RNZ, recorded and released on Waitangi Day, February 6 2024. The relevant parts of the transcript are excerpted below.

FORBES: AND THOSE INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS ARE NOW WARNING MĀORI THAT THE SAME GROUPS ARE BEHIND THIS REFERENDUM. ARE THEY, DO YOU THINK?
SEYMOUR: WELL, IF YOU’RE ABOUT TO GO INTO THE NEW PIZZAGATE OF THE LEFT CONSPIRACY THEORY, THEN I’LL BE REAL DISAPPOINTED.
FORBES: WHAT’S THAT, THE PIZZAGATE?
SEYMOUR: THAT’S SOME CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP HAS HAD IN THE US.
FORBES: THE CAMPAIGN IN AUSTRALIA HAD LINKS TO THE ATLAS NETWORK.
SEYMOUR: OH, HERE WE GO.
FORBES: A NETWORK OF THINK TANKS, WHICH PROMOTE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND FREE ENTERPRISE. AND IT SAID THAT THE NETWORK PUSHES OPINION PIECES IN FAVOUR OF FREE SPEECH. DO THE ACT PARTY HAVE ANY LINKS OR CONNECTIONS TO THE ATLAS GROUP?
SEYMOUR, VERY QUIETLY: NO.

That is a lie. David Seymour and the ACT Party have numerous links to the Atlas Network. Here are some of them.

After a 10 month stint as an electrical engineer – his sole non-political, non-think tank job – David Seymour worked for a Canadian think tank called the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, from 2007 to 2011. From January 2013 to February 2014, he worked for The Manning Foundation (now called the Canada Strong and Free Network). Both these think tanks were members of the Atlas Network at the time. (They possibly still are: the Atlas Network no longer discloses member organisations on its website.) Just in case there’s any doubt, here is David Seymour in the Atlas Year in Review, 2008. He is pictured composing a song about school choice to celebrate Milton Friedman Legacy Day, which is one of those sentences you never expect to find yourself writing.

…Seymour singing a song attacking public education to celebrate Milton Friedman is kinda hilarious…

There are other overt ACT links to Atlas. According to his LinkedIn profile, Louis Houlbrooke is currently “working at Parliament in support of ACT’s vision of an open and benevolent society in which individual New Zealanders are free to achieve their full potential.” Before this, he worked as Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union, an Atlas Network member, for four years, eight months. During this time, Houlbrooke attended multiple Atlas Network events, as documented by the Atlas Network.

Hilariously, the most comprehensive debunking of David Seymour’s 2024 Waitangi Day lie about the ACT Party’s connection to the Atlas Network comes from David Seymour’s 2021 Waitangi Day “State of the Nation” speech. Helpfully, you can read Seymour’s reference to “my old friends at the Atlas Network” at the ACT Party’s website, and on a video hosted on the ACT party’s Facebook page.

The interview continues:

FORBES: HAVE YOU SPOKEN OR TAKEN ADVICE FROM THEM OR ANY GROUP ASSOCIATED WITH THEM ABOUT THE TREATY?
SEYMOUR, EVEN MORE QUIETLY: NO.

This is not true, as Forbes quickly demonstrates. Seymour attended a Taxpayers’ Union (which is part of the Atlas Network) function in Wellington where British politician Lord Daniel Hannan – one of the principal architects of Brexit, and founding president of the Initiative for Free Trade (which is, if you haven’t guessed, part of the Atlas Network) – spoke specifically about the Treaty.

SEYMOUR: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE DOING THIS. I’VE READ ABOUT THIS CONSPIRACY THEORY AND YOU’RE ACTUALLY RUNNING IT, BUT THAT’S COOL.
FORBES: WELL, NO, I’M JUST TRYING TO UNDERSTAND IT BECAUSE WE WENT TO AUSTRALIA AND WE ANALYSED…
SEYMOUR (INTERRUPTING): WE DID THE CONSPIRACY THEORY…
FORBES: WE ANALYSED THE YES CAMPAIGN OVER THERE AND WE SPOKE WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR FEARS, ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN THE REFERENDUM. AND SO WHEN YOU CONSIDER, YOU KNOW, ACTUALLY YOU AND I SPOKE ABOUT IT. YOU SAID THAT YOU HAD MET LORD HANNON AND THEN THE TPU, THE TAXPAYER UNION, HAD INVITED YOU TO COME ALONG. AND HE SPOKE ABOUT THIS TREATY AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A REFERENDUM. SO ISN’T THAT IN FACT, YOU KNOW, THESE MOVEMENTS AND THESE GROUPS TALKING ABOUT OUR REFERENDUM?
SEYMOUR: WELL, GOING ALONG TO MEET SOMEONE WHO’S A FAMOUS FIGURE, IN WORLD POLITICS.
FORBES: WHAT DID HE COME TO NEW ZEALAND FOR?
SEYMOUR: I HAVE NO IDEA, BUT I WAS REALLY PLEASED TO…

(Seymour can find out what Hannan came to New Zealand for by either a.) consulting his memory of the speech he attended, b.) re-watching the speech Hannan gave on YouTube, or c.) by reading the video’s title, which is “Lord Hannan, Daniel speaks about equality, the Treaty and the Taxpayers’ Union in Wellington.” The video is helpfully subtitled throughout.)

FORBES: WELL, YOU WERE THERE.
SEYMOUR: I WAS REALLY PLEASED TO HAVE DINNER WITH THE GUY. I MEAN, HE’S, YOU KNOW, HE’S WORLD FAMOUS AS A POLITICIAN. YOU GET TO MEET HIM, HEAR WHAT HE HAS TO SAY.
FORBES: BUT YOU WENT ALONG TO THAT FUNCTION TO LISTEN TO HIM WHERE HE TALKED ABOUT THE MAGNA CARTA AND THE TREATIES AND…
SEYMOUR: OH MY GOD, THE MAGNA CARTA.
FORBES: HE DID. AND THEN…
SEYMOUR: SCANDALOUS.
FORBES: WELL, I’M NOT SAYING THAT THAT’S SCANDALOUS. I’M JUST SAYING THIS IS WHAT HE TALKED ABOUT. I LISTENED TO IT ONLINE BECAUSE IT WAS POSTED BY THE TPU. AND SO HE TALKED ABOUT THAT AND HE TALKED ABOUT THE DANGER OF THE MISINTERPRETATION OF TREATIES AND WHAT THEY MEANT. AND HE’S, YOU KNOW, AND HE ALSO SAYS, WHAT YOU SAY IS THAT THE JUDICIARY IS GETTING TOO INVOLVED OR THEY’RE MAKING THE INTERPRETATION OF IT AS TOO WIDE.
SEYMOUR: YOU DO KNOW THAT PEOPLE HAVE HAD CONCERNS ABOUT JUDICIAL ACTIVISM ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR ALL SORTS OF REASONS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, RIGHT?
FORBES: NO, I DON’T…
SEYMOUR (LAUGHING): AND YOU’RE TRYING TO SAY THAT THIS IS SOMEHOW SOME CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY. I MEAN, COME ON.
FORBES: NO, NO, I’M JUST ASKING THE QUESTION. I’M ASKING WHETHER YOU KNOW IF THERE’S ANY KIND OF CONNECTION. SO YOU’RE ANSWERING THERE IS NO CONNECTION?
SEYMOUR: I’VE TOLD YOU THAT THERE IS NO CONNECTION.
FORBES: KA PAI.
SEYMOUR: I’M JUST DISAPPOINTED IN YOU FOR PICKING UP A KNOWN CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE SENT TO ME AND I NEVER THOUGHT I’D GET ASKED ABOUT IT BY YOU, BUT HEY, YOU GO.

To be very clear: there is a connection, and it’s a comprehensive one. Seymour’s lie is beyond the pale, even for a public habituated to lying politicians. He must know that he worked for Atlas Network think tanks for years, and that he was a guest at Atlas Network events. He must also know ACT party staff members worked for Atlas Network think tanks for years and attended Atlas Network events. I’ll happily grant that a global network of think tanks dedicated to spreading far-right thought around the world sounds like a conspiracy theory, but that’s not journalists’ fault; that’s the fault of the Atlas Network for giving itself a name that would make a Bond supervillain blush, seeding and partnering with over 500 think tanks worldwide, and making grandiose statements like this on its own website:

The truth is that this Dark Money has influence washed 3rd Party Groups and is providing each other insights as to what culture war buttons to push and use to inspire angry right voter turn out.

There is a fucking difference between a Left Wing Think Tank getting funding from Unions that wants to make workers rights stronger and Right Wing Think tanks funded by far right Billionaires, Tobacco, Oil and Coal using spite politics to ensure their interests and profit margins are expanded at the cost of the climate, the people and the entire fucking planet!

The Left have no way to respond to the rise of ACT because it is their woke Wellington activists who are providing ACT with the culture war ammunition they are winning with.

The way you beat ACT is highlight their evil policy platform and attack them directly, instead the woke activists want to keep preaching the following:

ALL white people are irreversibly racist.

B-E-L-I-E-V-E ALL women that ALL men are rapists

and anyone supporting Free Speech is a uniform wearing Nazi who hates the Trans Community 

Until the Left can get over their cancel culture extremes, ACT will continue to grow and poison NZ with their hard right agenda.

I warned you all that the woke would drive voters into the arms of the extremist right, and it has happened.