{"id":388723,"date":"2026-04-20T12:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:46:16","slug":"nationals-former-attorney-general-prospect-to-contest-tamaki-for-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388723\/","title":{"rendered":"National\u2019s former Attorney-General prospect to contest T\u0101maki for Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe need a centre-right Government re-elected in New Zealand, but Act shares the frustrations that voters have with the pace of change. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAct has demonstrated over the last two years the essential role it plays keeping a National-led coalition government on-track and accountable, saving taxpayer money and cutting red tape to secure New Zealand\u2019s prosperity.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"James Christmas will be a candidate for Act at this election. Photo \/ Supplied\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>James Christmas will be a candidate for Act at this election. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/nationals-former-attorney-general-prospect-james-christmas-switches-allegiance-to-act\/BPB7UOCRUBFPDAQ7FDMJHQMBWQ\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/nationals-former-attorney-general-prospect-james-christmas-switches-allegiance-to-act\/BPB7UOCRUBFPDAQ7FDMJHQMBWQ\/\">Speaking exclusively to the Herald earlier this month<\/a>, Christmas acknowledged some in National might be \u201cdisappointed\u201d by his decision to switch parties, but he insisted it was not prompted by any ill will towards his former party. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\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<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s no more complicated than that, there\u2019s no hidden story there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/topic\/david-seymour\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/topic\/david-seymour\/\">Act leader David Seymour<\/a> welcomed his newest candidate and did not rule out Christmas holding a leadership role in the party in the future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere\u2019s always the possibility, but let\u2019s just see if we can get him elected to Parliament first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Christmas, 40, worked for Finlayson during the last <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/government-mps-arrive-in-wellington-after-poll-suggests-coalition-would-lose-power\/LFSGGSWAAJEKZG2BMKUIQB7MGY\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/government-mps-arrive-in-wellington-after-poll-suggests-coalition-would-lose-power\/LFSGGSWAAJEKZG2BMKUIQB7MGY\/\">National Government\u2019s<\/a> tenure from 2008-2017 when the latter was Attorney-General, Treaty Negotiations Minister and in charge of the spy agencies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Christmas went on to work as an adviser to Key and English when each was Prime Minister, before going out on his own as a lawyer in Auckland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">In 2023, Christmas was ranked 28th on National\u2019s party list before the general election. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe need a centre-right Government re-elected in New Zealand, but Act shares the frustrations that voters have with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4619,70185,19956,18399,13116,5903,42678,2082,2740,14054,3556,71084,111,43,139,69,4762,13237,6047,61,11744,1533],"class_list":["post-388723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-act","tag-attorneygeneral","tag-candidate","tag-christmas","tag-contest","tag-election","tag-electorate","tag-for","tag-former","tag-james","tag-national","tag-nationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-party","tag-prospect","tag-tmaki","tag-to","tag-upcoming","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388723","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=388723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}