Election 2020: Nine new ACT members are about to enter Parliament

Nine new ACT MPs are about to enter Parliament.

They are mostly unknown to the general public, but hail from Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Nelson, and Christchurch.

ACT’s popularity skyrocketed in these elections and the party has secured 8 percent of the country’s votes.

In 2017, ACT managed to garner just 0.5 percent support (13,075 party votes), but leader David Seymour won his Epsom seat, guaranteeing his party a voice in Parliament.

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Interim results show that 190,106 people checked the ACT box in this election, meaning that Seymour will lead a group of nine additional colleagues.

But who are these new ACT deputies?

ACT Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden, 27, grew up in Auckland and worked behind the scenes to get the End-of-Life Choice Act passed.

He stood at Wellington Central and managed to get 678 votes. Grant Robertson of Labor won with 22,015 votes.

van Velden went from being a Green Party voter to an ACT supporter while studying economics and international trade at the University of Auckland.

Earlier this year, Seymour described her as the “future of the party.”

At number three on the list is Wellington’s gun lobbyist Nicole McKee, who spearheaded the party’s campaign against the government’s gun laws.

McKee runs her own business and offers firearm safety training and is a four-time New Zealand shooting champion.

He received 811 votes in Rongotai, which was won by Labor Paul Eagle with 21,590 votes.

Fourth on the list, Chris Baillie de Nelson, who is a professor at Nayland College and owns a restaurant in town. He spent 14 years working as a policeman.

As a business owner, he said he knows how difficult it is to solve bureaucracy and compliance issues.

Baillie garnered 1,123 votes in his Nelson electorate, but achieved his goal of increasing the ACT party’s vote, from 137 in 2017 to 3,210.

Fifth on the list is Simon Court, who was at Te Atatū. He has 23 years of experience as a civil and environmental engineer for the private sector and local government.

He spent 10 years leading engineering, planning, tendering and construction teams primarily in Auckland, Wellington and Fiji. The Court intends to bring a disability perspective to Parliament. He has three children and the youngest has Down syndrome.

Sitting at number six is ​​James McDowall of Waikato, who is a small business owner and has a Ph.D. in marketing. He works for the Wise Group, one of the largest providers of mental health and wellness services in New Zealand.

She said earlier this year that she enjoys photography, traveling, and spending time with her 2-year-old daughter.

Seventh on the list is Upper Harbor candidate Karen Chhour, a self-employed mother of four who has lived on Auckland’s North Shore for 30 years.

She has a background in property management and says she is passionate about addressing homelessness, child poverty, abuse, and mental health.

At eight on the list is Northland dairy farmer Mark Cameron, 48, who has lived and farmed in the region for 30 years. He has a partner, Jodie, and three children.

He is the party’s spokesman for rural issues and believes that successive governments have defrauded the rural sector.

Ninth on the ACT list is Toni Severin, a licensed firearms owner who lives in Christchurch East. She and her husband have a business that they operate in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Prior to this, she was a Qualified Laboratory Technician on the Canterbury District Board of Health for 14 years.

She is a longtime ACT activist and was ranked 11th on the party’s list in 2014 and 10th in 2017.

Auckland businessman Damien Smith, who sneaked into Parliament in 10th on the list, was in the Botany electorate, won by Christopher Luxon of National.

Smith is a former business banker who has worked for the Virgin Group and ASB Bank. He runs his own consulting business and lives with his daughter in Orakei.