ACT Party leader David Seymour had a room full of voters eating out of his hand at a public meeting as he addressed their greatest concerns – co-governance, health, education, and the cost of living crisis.
And for the few who attempted to take Seymour’s talk off course, he had a message.
“You might find there’s another party for you somewhere else,” he said to the men who appeared to be questioning the government’s dependence on advice from large international organisations, including World Health Organisation.
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Seymour shot down a small group who appeared to offer outlandish theories about the Government.
Three disgruntled punters left to cheers and claps from the crowd, happy to see Seymour continue talking policies instead of conspiracies.
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Seymour spoke confidently and competently at Lincoln Event Centre near Christchurch, his first public meeting of the year, and starting with a laugh about a cash prize for sitting in the front row to relax the crowd.
Shooting down the ideas that the Government was part of a global conspiracy, Seymour said he knew everyone in parliament, and they would not be “competent” enough to carry out a conspiracy.
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Many in the audience had concerns about inflation, the cost of living and co-governance.
“People think the government is far more organised and capable than it really is”, he said.
Discussing the “extraordinary events” of Cyclone Gabrielle’s impact on the North Island, Seymour said the clear-up in the aftermath would affect the entire country with “even more inflation as a result”.
He spoke of tackling truancy, “dumping” resource management law and replacing it to “let people enjoy their property”, and addressed the health system – saying it needed to be bolstered by many more nurses if it was going to equal Australia’s efforts, achieved by paying more and funding more pharmaceuticals.
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Seymour’s speech in Lincoln was his first public meeting of the year.
The crowd was mainly made up of middle-aged to older couples who had took the trip to the meeting in rush-hour traffic to make it by 6pm.
One Tai Tapu resident in the crowd said he was there to “listen and learn” from the “open, honest and frank” politician.
A South African woman who moved to New Zealand in 2009 said Seymour was “the only one that talks sense”, and coming from a country that had failed at co-governance, she didn’t want to see “exactly the same nonsense again”.
“It doesn’t work.”
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