ACT swipes former National MP Parmjeet Parmar as new candidate

Former National MP Parmjeet Parmar will be standing for ACT at the election.

Parmar said in a statement that ACT was “often the only party asking the hard questions and thinking long-term about the changes that are needed in New Zealand to lift us up as a country”.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity ACT has given me to help to make real change, to contribute new ideas, new policy, that will make a difference to New Zealand’s future.”

The statement goes on to state, “Ms Parmer (sic) said: ‘As a scientist I have always taken an evidence-based approach and I see the same in ACT’.” The ACT Party statement spells Parmar’s name incorrectly as Parmer.

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Earlier this month, ACT took high-profile Manawatū dairy farmer and former Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard as a candidate. The move to ACT by Hoggard was significant, with Federated Farmers historically close with National.

ACT leader David Seymour said Parmar was “a woman of principles, a scholar, and a successful businesswoman”.

“She will be a great addition to the ACT team and I look forward to working with her to make New Zealand a better place.

“I expect ACT’s Board to give her a high list placing and select her to stand in the Pakuranga electorate.”

National MP Simeon Brown holds the Pakuranga electorate.

It comes just over a month after ACT announced its bid for Auckland’s Tāmaki seat, with the party’s deputy Brooke van Velden competing for the electorate against National MP Simon O’Connor.

Parmar migrated to New Zealand from India in 1995 and entered Parliament following the 2014 election.

Before entering politics, Parmar was the operations director of her family’s Auckland-based Kiwi Empire Confectionery business. She also served as a Families Commissioner, a community representative on the Film and Video Labelling Body of NZ, and as chair of the NZ Sikh Women’s Association.

Parmar, who served six years as a National MP until the 2020 election, was the first Indian-born woman to be elected to New Zealand’s Parliament. She voted against all three readings of Seymour’s End of Life Choice Act when the bill went through Parliament.