David Breen Seymour is a New Zealand politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Epsom and Leader of ACT New Zealand. Seymour worked in public policy in Canada, before returning to New Zealand and contesting for election to Parliament. He entered the House of Representatives in 2014 as ACT’s sole MP, after which he was elected as party leader, replacing Jamie Whyte. Seymour has embraced libertarian policies since becoming party leader; he supports the legalisation of assisted dying and introduced a bill on this issue.
About David Seymour (New Zealand politician) in brief
David Breen Seymour is a New Zealand politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Epsom and Leader of ACT New Zealand since 2014. Seymour worked in public policy in Canada, before returning to New Zealand and contesting for election to Parliament. He entered the House of Representatives in 2014 as ACT’s sole MP, after which he was elected as party leader, replacing Jamie Whyte. Seymour has embraced libertarian policies since becoming party leader; he supports the legalisation of assisted dying and introduced a bill on this issue. Seymour was re-elected to Parliament, representing Epsom, in the 2017 general election. Seymour is of Ngāpuhi Māori descent on his mother’s side, with his Māory ancestors coming from the Tauwhara marae of the Ngāti Rēhia hapū near Waimate North. He was endorsed in the Epsom electorate by Prime Minister John Key, despite Key’s National colleague Paul Goldsmith also contesting the electorate. He first stood for ACT in 2005 in Mt Albert against Helen Clark, who was Prime Minister at the time.
At the 2011 election, he stood forACT in the Auckland Central electorate, which was retained by National’s Nikki Kaye. After this election, Seymour worked as a ministerial adviser for ACT’s successful Epsom candidate, John Banks. Seymour assisted with the development of the government’s Partnership Schools legislation. In October 2015, a Labour Party member’s bill to make parliamentary under-secretaries subject to the Official Information Act passed its first reading in Parliament. Seymour continued to support the policy and push for more charter schools to be established. In January 2016, the first round of applications for charter schools were terminated for a Northland charter school from Teūmanawa O te te te Wairua. On 6 June 2015, Seymour confirmed that he was preparing a bill that would legalise assisted dying. On 8 June 2017, Seymour’s bill was selected from a member’s ballot, and passed with 76 votes in favour and 44 against.
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