Azaria Howell: Newstalk ZB political reporter on former National candidate James Christmas switching over to ACT

A former National Party candidate will stand with the ACT Party at this year's election. 

James Christmas is now a barrister and had worked under senior National figures including Sir John Key, Sir Bill English, and Chris Finlayson. 

Christmas was considered a possible option to take on the Attorney-General role and act as a Treaty Negotiations Minister.

Newstalk ZB political reporter Azaria Howell explains further - ahead of the election.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks ATB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's time to talk politics and I'm joined by Newstalk
ZB political reporter Azaria how Good morning, Aaria.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, Good to be with you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Right, we have a former National Party candidate, James Christmas,
who is was sort of tipped to be a potential minister.
He is now going to contest this year's election as
a candidate for the ACT Party. What's going on here?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, so candidates are being selected. There are some new
picks to discuss really from both National and ACT and
some are sort of surprises, I suppose. So first off,
National's former prospect for Attorney General has switched his ties
to ACT. It's been confirmed former National candidate James Christmas
aiming to run for ACT in Tarmiki, which you'll know

(00:54):
is ACT MP Broock van Velden's seat. It's the only
seat that ACT holds alongside their long held EPSOM seat.
It's been held by David Seymour for quite some time.
So Christmas was a barrister who worked for some really
high profile National Party people, John Key, Crispin Lesson, some
very strong National Party People and actleader David Seymour says

(01:19):
he's someone that, as he says, has a lot of
sympathy for National let's how Seymour described it, but says
he feels the country and himself both need a bit
more edge. Meanwhile, National has quite a big name in
the West Coast Tasman seat. Their candidate for that seat
has been announced as former Federated Farmers President Katie Milne,

(01:40):
the first woman to be president of Federated Farmers and
she was in that role from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty.
It's also worth noting as well, ACT MP Andrew Hoggard
he held leadership roles with the FEDS for quite some
time nine years. He's now Minister for Biosecurity and Food
Safety as well as Associate Agriculture Minister, so quite a

(02:02):
good title to have when you're sort of in the
running in politics. Said she's a lifelong advocate for farmers,
supports the government's moves to cut red tape and also
describes herself as a fifth generation West Coaster. Quite high profile,
so we'll see how that goes as well.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
A Zarah, just going back to James Christmas is there
some thought that, you know, I mean, there's some leadership
change about to happen within the ACT Party. Do you
think that he's in line for that potentially Deputy Leader
of ACT.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, David Seymour said, look, let's not rule anything out.
I mean, he would say though obviously we'll have to
see how that actually goes in terms of him getting elected.
But it's definitely somebody who is quite high profile, I mean,
was tipped to be a very successful MP for National
didn't make it through, but was very close and has

(02:51):
quite a lot of experience, not just in politics but
in law as well. And while we're on the topic
of candidates, I mean this election, this election racer is
really heating up. We'll also touch on New Zealand first.
I mean Winston Peters has been planning a public meeting
and Hastings today which has been postponed due to the weather.
So was the Green State of the Nation, or as

(03:13):
they call it, the State of the Planet that was
meant to be today as well, So we'll keep an
eye on when those are planned to be as well.
There's quite a lot going on in the candidate space
the ACT Party deputy role as well, definitely heating up.
Will be interesting to see if it is that newcomer
or if it is someone who's already been an MP
for quite some time. Maybe someone who's a minister, maybe

(03:34):
the likes of Karen Chaw or something Nicole McKee maybe
now Azariah.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I have a funny feeling that May twenty eighth could
be a bit grim. I feel like the Finance Minister
is kind of preparing us a little bit for budget day.
She said that the government has had to prioritize things
in the budget after funding fuel support.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, Nikola willis really setting expectations for the budget, making
it clear what we're expecting to see on that. Nikola
Willis has said to US talkerz edb she's had to
get the ruler out, go line by line and say, well,
in the light of the fuel crisis, is this a
priority now? This comes as the government has supported that

(04:17):
in work tax credit in relation to some families had
hardest by the fuel prices. So that is quite significant
in terms of We'll have to wait, obviously to get
more details until the budget is actually unveiled, but it
is very significant that the Finance Minister is omitting there
has been quite a bit of perhaps trimming going on

(04:39):
in the budget in terms of response to these high
patrol prices. She also admits that it might not be
flattering for the government's books. She also gave a bit
of an election message too, and this kind of goes
back to what we were talking before. She said National
is more fiscally responsible than New Zealand first, but also,

(04:59):
as she says, more compassionate than Act will ever be,
so really competing for those votes, but also really trying
to set a line in terms of what this budget
might be like. They've already sort of said it will
be something to the line of responsible spending, cutting inflation,
things like that. It seems like that might even more

(05:21):
be the case with what we're seeing with petrol Azariah.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
How As always, thank you so much for your time
this morning. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
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