Face of the Day

ACT’s newest candidate for the general election, Paul Henry, says he’s “enormously disappointed with National”, and the prime minister’s performance especially.

Speaking from a rooftop bar in central Auckland where his candidacy for the November 7 election was revealed on Tuesday, Henry responded to the ‘why ACT’ question.

“The nature of being a centrist party, centre-right centrist party, is you have to be a little bit populist,” he said, explaining why he had fallen out of love with National, and in answering a question about what he’d made of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s performance.

“What happens if you run a party that wants everyone to vote for them, is you end up doing nothing,” Henry said.

“This is probably why the single reason why ACT is so important, because someone needs to hold National to account.”

Stuff