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Former National Party candidate James Christmas, who was tipped as a potential minister and Attorney-General, will contest this year’s election as a candidate for the Act Party. He is one of eight people vying to become Act’s candidate in Auckland’s Tāmaki electorate, which will be an intriguing contest after the departure from politics of MP Brooke van Velden, also Act’s deputy leader. Christmas, a barrister who worked under senior National figures including Sir John Key, Sir Bill English and Chris Finlayson, will be considered a significant loss for National given he was considered a possible option to take on the Attorney-General role and act as a Treaty Negotiations Minister. With a deep understanding of Treaty settlements and New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements, Christmas also presents as an ideal candidate to articulate the party’s next attempt at constitutional reform after the failed Treaty Principles Bill, which Christmas’ former mentor Finlayson condemned as divisive. Speaking exclusively to the Herald, Christmas acknowledged some in National might be “disappointed” by his decision but he insisted it was not prompted by any ill will towards his former party. “I’ve looked at where I can make the biggest contribution, and I made a positive decision to [join Act],” he said. “It’s no more complicated than that, there’s no hidden story there.” James Christmas will be a candidate for Act at this election. Photo / Supplied Act leader David Seymour is welcoming his newest candidate and isn’t ruling out Christmas holding a leadership role in the party in the future. “There’s always the possibility, but let’s just see if we can get him elected to Parliament first.” Christmas, 40, worked for Finlayson during the last National Government’s tenure from 2008-2017 when the latter was Attorney-General, Treaty Negotiations Minister and in charge of the spy agencies. 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. In 2023, Christmas was ranked 28th on National’s party list before the general election. In a profile published by the Herald in August that year, Christmas had been tipped for senior positions in Government, should he enter Parliament. 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. Christmas said he had suspected his chances of becoming an MP in 2023 were low after helping campaign in traditionally left-leaning Auckland electorates. “It was pretty clear door-knocking there that National was going to win some of those seats, so … it was going to be a bit of a roll of the dice.” 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. “I think the thing that probably flipped it a bit was I went and had lunch with [former party leader] Richard Prebble. “I went down to see him in Whakatāne, where he was out there fishing for the weekend, and had lunch with him and we had a bit of a chat,” Christmas said, adding he also lunched with Act co-founder Roger Douglas earlier that year. Former Act leader Richard Prebble had lunch with Christmas last year. Photo / NZ Herald Describing himself as a “classical liberal” who had supported Act at university, Christmas believed liberalism “really does find a home in Act”. “You’ve seen that pretty consistently and it’s on the issues like individual liberty, property rights, equal citizenship, calling for the smaller state. “But I think one thing I do like about Act is they are willing to go out on a limb for those things when required.” He pointed to Act’s opposition to legislation banning greyhound racing, which was passed recently with support by the other five parties in Parliament. Christmas, wh...
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