Mike Hosking: David Seymour, my politician of year

Act Party leader David Seymour at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

COMMENT:

David Seymour is my politician of the year.

Although there is a referendum to go, I have no doubt that his euthanasia law will be confirmed and by quite some margin.

For years the Parliament has not reflected the view of the public on the matter.

Any number of polls over the years has support for euthanasia somewhere in the 70s.

It has been a trick of democracy that a law hasn't been passed sooner.

A conscience vote is a deeply flawed concept when it comes to reflecting the views and aspirations of the constituency.

MMP has made it worse, given that too many in the House actually represent no one, therefore whose conscience they are voting on I have no idea.

But because of its complexity, not to mention the extraordinarily entrenched emotion around the subject, it has turned into one of the most fraught bits of legislation to drive through any parliament.

Which is why what David Seymour achieved this year is not just the year's most significant piece of law, but a law for the generations.

Once a country passes such a law they do not go back.

Seymour has changed this country forever.

Even more impressive is the fact he did it largely alone. Yes he had supporters and help but alone in the sense he is a party of one.

He doesn't have the resources of the larger players, he doesn't have the lobbying power, the funding, the party whip.

He took the most emotive of ideas and corralled MPs into a vote that got a decent majority of them across the line.

If he never does another thing politically, that would've been more than the vast majority who frequent the place for years with no real sign of having made a difference.

Encouraging as well to see in the last 1 News Colmar Brunton poll that his support has doubled to 2 per cent.

David Seymour has changed this country forever. Photo / AP

Not of course one of the larger numbers, but importantly it is double what he had, and if you look carefully under MMP and the coat tailing rules, if you win a seat , which he will, you don't need a lot more than 2 per cent to get 3 MPs in the house.

To triple the presence of a party would do a number of significant things.

Firstly, give Act genuine credibility back.

Secondly make Act one of the only - if not the only - party to increase support since the last election.

And finally potentially get National into government.

I don't think the poll is coincidental. I think enough people have seen Seymour at his intelligent and mature best and watched the work and the effort that's gone into his euthanasia Law.

In a country where too much of this year politically has been a mess driven by ineptitude, broken promises, missed targets, and poor behaviour, there is a thirst at least among some for quality law and leadership.

I think you can admire what Seymour has done, even if you don't agree with what he's done.

Even if you never vote Act or anywhere close to it.

He took a cross-party issue, owned it, worked it tirelessly, and won.

Ironically you could have argued, and many did, that given the amount of time this thing took, he had better things to do like get his party in a state to be taken seriously.

Was euthanasia, many asked, the obsession that would ultimately damage him?

What if he had spent all that time for no result, still stuck on 1 per cent in the polls, with no law, no real profile and no great success.

And that is why he is my politician of the year.

History shows over and over, bravery and boldness are qualities not only to be admired, but they generally pay dividends.

Seymour has had the year of his career, the biggest most profound bit of law passed, a boost in the polls because of it.

He has every reason to believe he can enter election year 2020 with a view to taking this year's spoils and running with them all the way to his biggest election night yet and possibly government.