\u201cI\u2019ve looked at where I can make the biggest contribution, and I made a positive decision to [join Act],\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no more complicated than that, there\u2019s no hidden story there.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Christmas will be a candidate for Act at this election. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Act leader David Seymour is welcoming his newest candidate and isn\u2019t ruling out Christmas holding a leadership role in the party in the future. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always the possibility, but let\u2019s just see if we can get him elected to Parliament first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christmas, 40, worked for Finlayson during the last National Government\u2019s tenure from 2008-2017 when the latter was Attorney-General, Treaty Negotiations Minister and in charge of the spy agencies. <\/p>\n
Christmas went on to work as an adviser to Key and English when they were Prime Minister before going out on his own as a lawyer in Auckland. <\/p>\n
In 2023, Christmas was ranked 28th on National\u2019s party list before the general election. <\/p>\n
In a profile published by the Herald in August that year, Christmas had been tipped for senior positions in Government, should he enter Parliament. <\/p>\n
However, with all votes tallied, Christmas was three places too low after National won 43 electorate seats and was only allowed five list seats, which went to Nicola Willis, Paul Goldsmith, Melissa Lee, Gerry Brownlee and Nancy Lu. <\/p>\n
Christmas said he had suspected his chances of becoming an MP in 2023 were low after helping campaign in traditionally left-leaning Auckland electorates. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty clear door-knocking there that National was going to win some of those seats, so \u2026 it was going to be a bit of a roll of the dice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christmas then put his political ambition to one side for a year before picking it back up in 2025, thanks in part to conversations with former Act Party identities. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the thing that probably flipped it a bit was I went and had lunch with [former party leader] Richard Prebble.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went down to see him in Whakat\u0101ne, where he was out there fishing for the weekend, and had lunch with him and we had a bit of a chat,\u201d Christmas said, adding he also lunched with Act co-founder Roger Douglas earlier that year. <\/p>\n
Former Act leader Richard Prebble had lunch with Christmas last year. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n
Describing himself as a \u201cclassical liberal\u201d who had supported Act at university, Christmas believed liberalism \u201creally does find a home in Act\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen that pretty consistently and it\u2019s on the issues like individual liberty, property rights, equal citizenship, calling for the smaller state.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think one thing I do like about Act is they are willing to go out on a limb for those things when required.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed to Act\u2019s opposition to legislation banning greyhound racing, which was passed recently with support by the other five parties in Parliament. <\/p>\n
Christmas, who had remained in touch with many former National Cabinet ministers, claimed his decision to go with Act was not spurred by any disagreement or drama.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, honestly, it\u2019s not a walking away from the Nats, it\u2019s a positive decision to go to Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
He referenced Seymour\u2019s State of the Nation speech this year as another factor in his switch. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Seymour] called the cost-of-living crisis a productivity slump, which it is, talked about real economic growth actually going backwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore you can have the credibility to actually talk about trying to change these things, you have to be upfront with what the problem actually is and I think that\u2019s what David has been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Act leader David Seymour has welcomed Christmas’ decision. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Christmas accepted the news might surprise some in the National Party. <\/p>\n
\u201cI imagine there will be a level of disappointment from some of my friends and former colleagues in the National Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagine some of them will be fine with it, and I\u2019m hoping there\u2019ll be a good reaction in the Act Party, but I made what I consider [to be] a really principled and well thought through decision here that hasn\u2019t been made in any respect on a whim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treaty reform <\/p>\n
This term, Act was unsuccessful in gaining enough support to pass its Treaty Principles Bill into law, which would have redefined the Treaty\u2019s principles. <\/p>\n
While Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has vowed not to support something similar in a future coalition agreement with Act, Seymour has promised to continue pursuing reform in this area. He is yet to unveil how it will fit into his 2026 campaign. <\/p>\n
Enter Christmas, whose experience in law and in Parliament makes him no stranger to the Treaty of Waitangi. He also co-authored a book with Christopher Finlayson, He Kupu Taurangi: Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Christmas said he supported Seymour\u2019s desire to debate the Treaty\u2019s place in modern New Zealand, arguing its principles had been \u201csprinkled like confetti\u201d through legislation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese things have been dropped in everywhere and often they don\u2019t specify what obligations they create, who bears them or how they\u2019re enforced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end … it\u2019s handed the decision of what they mean to the public service and the courts to fill in the gaps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s unfair after 40 years of having these in our law, that Parliament stands back and has a proper look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christmas worked under senior National minister Chris Finlayson. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
His former mentor Finlayson was a prominent critic of Seymour\u2019s bill, regularly urging Luxon and National to withdraw support. <\/p>\n
Christmas wouldn\u2019t expand on his own view of the bill and answered carefully when asked whether he\u2019d debated the matter with Finlayson, who Christmas said had been supportive of his decision to become an Act candidate. <\/p>\n
\u201cI keep in touch with Chris and we discuss stuff from time to time, but his views on stuff aren\u2019t determinative on me, and my views are certainly not determinative on Chris. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst thing anyone could ever try to do is put words in Chris Finlayson\u2019s mouth and I would never try to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
T\u0101maki electorate race<\/p>\n
The surprise announcement from van Velden last month that she was leaving politics has prompted speculation about who might succeed her as T\u0101maki\u2019s MP. <\/p>\n
The seat, held almost exclusively by National since 1946, became Act\u2019s second electorate seat after van Velden overcame National\u2019s Simon O\u2019Connor, who had been the local MP for four consecutive terms. <\/p>\n
In February, National announced its candidate as Mahesh Muralidhar, a tech start-up mentor and investor who lost to then-Green Party MP Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick in Auckland Central in 2023. <\/p>\n
Christmas confirmed he was one of eight people vying to be Act\u2019s T\u0101maki candidate. <\/p>\n
Other contenders are: Antonia Modkova (ranked 12th on Act\u2019s 2023 list), Pat Arroyo, Henrietta Devoe, Helena Roza, Mike Schmidt, Malkiat Singh and Paul Wedding. <\/p>\n
From Monday, party members in the electorate can vote for their preferred candidate before a final decision made by the party\u2019s board, which will be announced on April 20. <\/p>\n
Seymour described Christmas as a \u201cvery high-quality candidate\u201d but also spoke highly of Modkova and Roza. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose are at least three of the eight who I think any of them could be a very good nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooke van Velden announced last month she was leaving politics. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
On the addition of Christmas to his ranks, Seymour hoped Christmas\u2019 former colleagues respected his choice. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s clearly someone who has a lot of sympathy for the National Party, but feels that himself and the country need a bit more edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody who knows [Christmas] would deny that he is incredibly likable, intellectually formidable and exactly the sort of person who should be entering Parliament at this point in our history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if Christmas could lead the party\u2019s next proposed Treaty reform policies, Seymour said his new candidate had relevant skills. <\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I think New Zealand has challenges around its constitutional underpinnings and he brings intellectual grunt to that issue, not just in relation to the Treaty, but also the relationship between the courts and government, which has been very, very strained lately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve looked at where I can make the biggest contribution, and I made a positive decision to [join…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4619,109452,70185,19956,18399,13116,5903,2740,14054,6722,3556,71084,111,43,139,69,4762,6046,13237,116586,1961,23368,61,1533,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-374917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-allegiance","10":"tag-attorneygeneral","11":"tag-candidate","12":"tag-christmas","13":"tag-contest","14":"tag-election","15":"tag-former","16":"tag-james","17":"tag-minister","18":"tag-national","19":"tag-nationals","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-party","25":"tag-potential","26":"tag-prospect","27":"tag-switches","28":"tag-this","29":"tag-tipped","30":"tag-to","31":"tag-will","32":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}