[ad_1]
However, speaking to Magic Talk’s Road to the Election host Mitch McCann on Sunday, Seymour said “no” when asked if he wanted the coveted post of deputy prime minister.
When McCann pushed the subject, asking if Seymour would turn down the position if it was offered, he admitted that would likely be his answer, but wasn’t ruling it out.
“I think that’s a scenario that you may well see. If you look at the End of Life Choice option [Bill]John Key asked me to be a minister; I looked at the limo, the raise, the title, all the nonsense that a lot of people spend their political careers trying to get, and I asked, ‘Well, can I make a bigger difference for New Zealand by maintaining some independence? ‘”He told McCann.
“And the effect on the choice of end of life, assuming [the Bill] It happens and people vote for compassion in this referendum – it’s that thousands of New Zealanders will have control and dignity at the end of their lives. That is more important to me than any title. “
He also argued that it was “too premature” to discuss positions before the October 17 elections.
“I’m not obsessed with where I sit on the bus,” he reiterated. “[But] I do not rule “.
Seymour added that ACT has an important role in the upcoming elections, as its policy would help “change the direction” of a nationally led government, revealing the reason why it was never interested in joining the party.
“At this point, we need ACT to help win the election … ACT rising in the polls, National rising in the polls – that’s the key to a change in government, but ACT’s role in that is the key to a change in direction, “he said.
“One thing about the Nats, and why I never joined them, is that they have been in power for 48 of the last 71 years and have yet to reverse a Labor policy. I’m just asking, what’s the point of campaigning? Against Work and tell everyone how terrible they are, if they are only going to be the custodians of their ideas? “
However, it is not the first time that a politician in a leadership role suggests that he does not want the top job.
In July, Collins told Magic Talk that he was “very happy” with his caucus roles – which included a spokesperson for economic and regional development – and that he was happy to sit down and support former national leader Todd Muller.
“It’s not something I’m never going to go and break a gut to become,” Papakura’s deputy told Sunday Cafe host Roman Travers.
However, just over a week later, Collins successfully succeeded Muller when he resigned from the leadership position after less than two months in office.
According to the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll, 37 percent of ACT voters came from National this year, while 10 percent of voters have transitioned from the Maori Party, Seymour noted.
National is currently at 29.6 percent, an increase of 4.5 points. Based on these numbers, neither National nor ACT would have enough votes to form a government.
ACT is now fighting with the Greens to become the third largest party in Parliament. The Greens are sitting at 6.5 percent in the Newshub-Reid Research poll, but their ally Labor is at 50.1 percent, meaning it could rule alone.
Yet the data hasn’t stopped Greens co-leader James Shaw from dreaming of a Labor-green government, after Colmar Brunton’s latest poll showed Labor at 47 percent, indicating a coalition of Greens and Shaw potentially becoming deputy prime minister. Not “outside the realm of possibility,” he said.
