He believes in personal choice and personal freedom – and that, he says, sets him apart from some of his National Party counterparts.

ACT party leader and Epsom MP David Seymour was in Tauranga today, to speak at a Tauranga Te Papa Rotary lunch, visit local businesses, and meet supporters.

In the afternoon he dropped into the SunLive offices to have a chat about his party's vision for New Zealand.

He says he comes to Tauranga ‘two or three' times a year.

'I like hearing what people have to say outside of Auckland and Wellington. I think it's important.”

He's an easy-going guy – he starts the interview by admitting he was accosted by a man in the carpark and given the ‘third degree' on water. But he knows it's something that comes with the territory – which is to say, being a support partner for the National government.

That being said, he's no government lapdog. Like the opposition parties, he thinks more needs to be done on issues like housing.

'People are now paying 54 per cent of their income on housing costs,” he says. He puts the blame squarely on the Resource Management Act.

'It's time to replace it.”

As for that other big election issue – immigration – David also sees ACT forging a different path to National. He wants to see a ‘taxpayer-friendly' immigration policy.

'Something without the naivety of National, or the racism of New Zealand First.”

He thinks the latter party is ‘disgraceful' in the way its members address race and immigration. He also thinks turning off the tap wouldn't work.

'You're dreaming if you say you're going to slash immigration. It would stop the economy.”

But he would like to clamp down on people bringing their parents to New Zealand to enjoy our health system, education, and superannuation.

'People can buy houses, plant their parents and their kids in them, who use our education and health system. And all the while, they're paying tax to a foreign government.

'If you want to send your kids to a New Zealand school, you should be a New Zealand tax resident. Or you'll have to pay international fees.”

Superannuation is another point of interest for David – who, at 34 years old, is the youngest party leader in parliament.

'I know what it's like to pay off a student loan and pay high taxes, as well as living in this housing market,” he says.

'The superannuation bill is set to be $58 billion over the next 20 years – it's going up $700 million a year at the moment.”

He believes it would be more sustainable to peg superannuation to life expectancy – which means as we collectively live longer, the age of eligibility will slowly increase, until it theoretically reaches the 70s.

It's an idea that's unlikely to win many votes in the silver-haired seat of Tauranga. But with David and ACT, it appears fiscal responsibility trumps political expediency.

SOCIAL ISSUES

The ACT Party has always been the party of lower taxes – they want to reduce the top tax rate to 25 per cent, for example. But they're also the party of social liberalism: the idea that people should be free to forge their own path in life, so long as it doesn't adversely affect the rights of others.

It's partly that belief in personal freedom that prompted David to put his support behind euthanasia law reform. Earlier this month his private member's bill, which would legalise voluntary euthanasia, was drawn from the ballot.

'I wasn't sure about it when I first got into parliament. I thought it could be abused, but after researching the subject more, I've found that isn't true.

'People shouldn't have to suffer until the end. Supporting my End of Life Choice Bill is the right thing to do, democratically and morally.”

Is he as passionate about other contentious issues, though? On abortion, he says he'd like to see it decriminalised, and the current law updated to better reflect the reality of abortion in modern New Zealand – for example, women would no longer have to feign mental health issues to secure a termination.

He accepts fathers might have a stake in the matter – but ultimately, it is a woman's body, and should be her choice.

'That being said, rights always come with obligations.”

As for cannabis, his position differs on medicinal and recreational use. For medicinal, he's in favour.

'It's clearly something the public want, and it should be available.”

But he says recreational use is a ‘more difficult' matter.

'Prohibition has been a failure – 400,000 people smoked cannabis last year, according to the New Zealand Law Society. It's funding a criminal underworld, too.”

He doesn't believe the New Zealand public are ready for those kind of reforms, and won't be for many years.

THE FUTURE OF ACT

But what about the fortunes of the ACT Party? Following a peak of nine MPs in 2002, the party has steadily decreased its share of the vote since then. Now, polling at around one per cent, the party's solitary MP – David himself – is in parliament arguably by the good grace of National, who have gifted ACT the Labour-loathing electorate of Epsom.

It would seem the party is on the way out. But David doesn't see it that way.

Despite the party only receiving 134 votes in Tauranga last election, he says the party has had a ‘very strong presence' here in the past.

'We'll be announcing our candidates for Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty on July 9.”

So it would seem ACT is hanging in there. The party has been around for almost 25 years, and David thinks it will definitely be around in another 25.

'New Zealand has always had a group like ACT. Bob Jones' New Zealand Party was the ACT of its day, and there have been lobby groups within the National Party that have shared our views.”

David's almost certain to win Epsom again on September 23. Whether he brings another two or three MPs with him will be up to the New Zealand public.