ACT leader David Seymour tells YOUR EX’s Oliver Hall why he backs government intervention in puberty-blocker prescribing, supports legal definitions of men and women, and why being poor in New Zealand today “sucks”
David Seymour’s political philosophy usually begins with a simple proposition: leave people alone.
“I’m live and let live,” the ACT leader tells YOUR EX.
But when YOUR EX asks how that philosophy applies to transgender New Zealanders, Seymour draws some firm boundaries.
ACT voted to send New Zealand First’s Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill to select committee. Seymour says that, barring some unexpected finding during that process, he expects to support it becoming law.
“We want to be accommodating of all people in our community. If you feel different, we’re not here to diminish you. But we can’t deny biological reality.”
Asked whether transgender New Zealanders should be concerned about existing rights being changed, Seymour says: “I don’t have any plan to go and change people’s rights.”
When YOUR EX gives him a concrete example, asking whether a trans woman whose passport currently records her as female could see that changed, his answer is direct.
“No, I don’t see a benefit in doing that.”
The bill remains before Parliament’s Social Services and Community Committee. It proposes defining “woman” as “an adult human biological female” and “man” as “an adult human biological male” across legislation unless another law explicitly provides otherwise.
Seymour becomes more interventionist when the conversation turns to gender-affirming healthcare for young people.
“When you look at the unnatural uptick, in the statistical sense, in the prescription of puberty blockers, it’s hard to believe that you are seeing a genuine change in clinical diagnosis,” he says.
“My normal starting point would be let the doctor decide. But when you see a pattern in doctors’ decisions like that, there is a reasonable case for the government to act.”
Seymour believes some distressed teenagers may have had other problems interpreted through the lens of gender dysphoria because it was an explanation readily available to clinicians.
When YOUR EX challenges whether qualified doctors could really be susceptible to that kind of thinking, Seymour responds:
“Doctors are just people. I thought doctors were gods until I saw them all getting pissed at med school. So they are just as fallible to behavioural economics as any other profession.”
The Government introduced regulations restricting new puberty-blocker prescriptions for young people with gender dysphoria or gender incongruence from December 2025, although the Ministry of Health is currently not enforcing them while a judicial review proceeds. The Ministry says its evidence review found significant limitations in the quality of evidence around both benefits and risks.
On these issues, Seymour says ACT and New Zealand First have found themselves in agreement.
Asked whether ACT has had to say no to New Zealand First on a rainbow issue during this term, Seymour answers simply: “No.”
“The definition of man and woman bill we agree with them on and puberty blockers, again, we agree.”
He is less certain when asked whether Winston Peters has made LGBTQ+ people a political target.
“Very hard to know with Winston. Sometimes I’m not even sure he knows himself.”
That emphasis on individual freedom also shapes Seymour’s defence of capitalism.
Asked what he says to socially liberal voters who believe capitalism is worsening inequality and environmental damage, he rejects the premise that the system has failed.
“After 200 years of capitalism, we’re living twice as long on average. That’s not bad.”
“Being poor in New Zealand today sucks, but it’s absolute luxury compared with how most people at most times in history have lived, and that’s just a simple fact that any serious person would have to concede.”
Seymour does not argue that present-day inequality is irrelevant. He attributes much of New Zealand’s wealth gap to house and other asset prices rising faster than wages and productivity, and argues that increasing housing supply is part of the answer.
Education, he says, is another.
“We have not given people in the poorest communities the opportunity to have the greatest knowledge in the world.”
He is more cautious about imposing a single national approach to teaching sexuality, gender and consent.
Seymour points to differing attitudes in religious Pacific communities in South Auckland, rural Southland and metropolitan city centres. When YOUR EX notes that all of those communities also have LGBTQ+ children, he agrees.
“Ultimately, you want tolerance and respect and acceptance,” he says, but argues that “the pace of learning and the timeline of maturation” may differ between communities.
One area where Seymour remains supportive of further reform is surrogacy.
Three years ago, he told YOUR EX that New Zealand’s surrogacy laws needed modernising. Asked why reform still has not made it across the line under his current coalition, he offers a simple explanation.
“There is no reason other than it’s just been a wild time.”
He points to ACT’s number 14 list candidate, Fertility Associates chief executive Alex Price, as someone he believes could become a knowledgeable advocate for reform if elected.
For Seymour, there is no contradiction. He can be “live and let live” about what a trans woman’s passport says while backing legal definitions of men and women and government intervention in puberty-blocker prescribing.
It is a version of liberalism with clearly defined limits, even if Seymour would argue those limits are precisely what allow everyone else their freedom.
As ACT asks rainbow New Zealanders for their votes in 2026, the question is whether they see freedom the same way he does.
