Chris Bishop & David Seymour's Very Real Likeness
Bishop & Seymour share an intimate history and similar beginnings. Plus: David Seymour's $153 million private school pot partially distributed to John Key & Jamie Beaton linked Crimson Education group
Chris Bishop and David Seymour share an intimate history. Both came out of Atlas Network aligned organisations. Both started their careers as lobbyists - Bishop for tobacco companies where he subtly threatened NZ with a lawsuit, and David Seymour for fossil fuel / tobacco linked groups where Seymour voiced support for anti-indigenous genocide figures.
Both Bishop and Seymour are also closely linked to Jordan Williams and the Taxpayers Union.
In Bishop’s case, his father co-created Taxpayers Union (not a real union - a private company). For David Seymour, Taxpayers Union offered direct campaign assistance & logistics to help the ACT Party.
There’s no real mystery about it all. My take is Taxpayers Union assist ACT because they are all linked by the same donor money e.g. Alan Gibbs, ACT’s “Godfather” is an Atlas Network supporter, and TPU (like NZ Initiative) both belong to the Atlas alliance.
They are all linked too by the same libertarian ideology - a movement that conservative economist Robert MacCulloch identified as the “core reason the Coalition is failing”.1 The movement has been exemplified by the likes of Liz Truss, Donald Trump, and Javier Miller, and our own NZ government, whose economic policies have rendered some of the worst economic and social results for 15-30 years.
But these days, Seymour’s star is on the fall.
He’s gone much quieter after public reprimands from the politically rising Winston Peters.
Peters publicly “scolded” Seymour over Palestine, mocked Seymour’s karakia stance as ignorant, and joined Christopher Luxon in berating Seymour for his UN letter response - a letter that warned New Zealand is treading a dangerous path towards harming Māori, and also called out the risks of the Coalition’s dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill.
Seymour has stayed largely contrite in response to the public dressing downs. He needs NZ First to pass ACT’s damaging Regulatory Standards Bill, a bill that will retroactively open Kiwis and our governments/Councils up to significant lawsuits & chill good law making, if it goes through.
Until that’s done, Peters holds the upper hand on the public stage.
Seymour is also failing where he might not want to. He ranked 11th in the yawn inducing “Mood of the Boardroom” survey that NZME like to hype up. Even Judith Collins (7) and Shane Jones (9) easily beat out Seymour’s rating. Ditto his deputy.
In contrast, Chris Bishop came in at 3rd, and feels buoyed by a recent Stuff/The Post poll that shows him as the preferred replacement for Christopher Luxon.
Bishop led that polling (16%) beating out Erica Stanford (12%) and Nicola Willis (11%).
But it is one poll, and inconsequential to the final outcome. It’s also true that most people just didn’t know.
That said, Bishop is capitalising on the moment, issuing friendly press releases of himself opening up school bike tracks in Wellington - and on the other hand supporting his government’s stopping of new cycling lanes, and halving funding for walking/cycling - leading to councils cancelling bike lane work around the country. i.e. he’s pandering to all sides and will say and present whatever is most beneficial to himself in that moment.
To be clear, National and Bishop cut $460 million of related funding, but he touted a ~$3 million bike grant yesterday for PR.
It reminds me of Bishop earning populist brownie points for advocating for cheaper housing - even as he singularly cancels state houses around the country, and aims for an ambitious “net 600” new ones (in contrast, Labour oversaw around 18,000).
Or Bishop calling National’s promised 10,000 EV charger election promise just an “ambitious, stretched goal”.
In substance, Bishop is everything lobbyist - he’s proud of lobbying and wants to help lobbyists change the law to “get things done”, he wants to privatise New Zealand beyond measure, he’s heavily linked to Atlas Network causes and speaking points, and he lies unequivocally and shamelessly.
Yet he courts middle New Zealand avidly with friendly photos of cycling and stories of wanting to help Kiwis into their affordable, private market homes.
Some may be on his side, but New Zealand may be forging its own self made Boris Johnson if it’s not careful - and that won’t be a net positive.
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