For the next three months, One MP, One Pint is morphing into One Candidate, One Pint, with Lyric Waiwiri-Smith putting parliamentary hopefuls in the hot seat. First up, the Act candidate for Tāmaki on why he broke up with his old party.
Surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes, with a dormant Rangitoto Island in the distance, this slice of Auckland’s Tāmaki electorate is particularly idyllic. Inside St Heliers Bay Bistro, the baby-faced 40-year-old hoping to retain the seat for the Act Party sips a 0% beer and maps out his dreams while the mid-afternoon sun speckles the waves on the shorefront. It can’t hurt this candidate’s chances that this isn’t his first rodeo in terms of politics. That, and the trick up his sleeve: he’s the only person who can promise his electorate an early Christmas.
With incumbent MP Brooke van Velden leaving politics at the election, the race for Tāmaki is wide open. But her Act Party successor, James Christmas, is already more than ready to take over the reins. He was once tipped as a potential attorney-general for the National Party, but now the self-described “classic liberal” is running with the Act pack. While the colours he wears have changed, Christmas reckons his political compass has remained the same since his teen years.
After all, Christmas has always been a little bit of a politics tragic. He would listen to parliament on the radio as a youth, and realised in his early teens that his views put him “in the minority” among his peers. Christmas was 15 years old going on 65, already a government sceptic mad as all hell about the tax system. “I remember watching Jim Anderton talking about setting up the Ministry of Business and the government offering support to businesses, and I had this instinctive feeling in me: what the hell would he know about business?” Christmas says. “It made me really angry. When they talked about tax, it used to get to me as well.”
Don’t worry, thought: “I used to get really cross about this stuff, but I’m chilled these days,” Christmas promises.
After high school, a chance encounter at an orchestra in Christchurch saw Christmas invited to spend the summer of 2005/06 interning for then new National MP Chris Finlayson. He continued to work in Finlayson’s office as he went to law school, studying at the Victoria University campus across the road from parliament. By the time Christmas was ready to graduate in 2008, National was in government and his mentor had been made attorney-general and treaty negotiations minister, and the duo continued working together until 2016. It was the greatest experience and exposure a young law student could hope for.
Working as a senior adviser to Finlayson brought him up close and personal with the treaty negotiations portfolio – the two would later write a book together on treaty settlements. Christmas remembers trips to the office by late former prime minister Jim Bolger, who would recall the public backlash to the treaty settlement project he proposed. It taught Christmas that, “sometimes, a bit of political bravery is necessary” when you want to get good work done.
It seems to be this tidbit from Christmas’s professional working life that raises the most eyebrows; how can a man who seems to know quite a bit about treaty law run for the treaty principles bill party? It all comes down to a core Act Party kaupapa, he says: property rights. “The Labour Party and Green Party talk about treaty settlements often through the lens of justice or social justice. For me, that’s not where the value is,” Christmas says. “What are the things that this treaty settlement tries to put right? It’s about property rights being written over, whether through unfair sales or loss of connection to land.”
The keen political nerd reminds me that Act has supported most of the settlements that have passed through parliament. He worries “overreach” by the previous Labour government into co-governance has “burned off a lot of goodwill” for the settlements process, but remains hopeful all iwi across the motu will eventually settle. Christmas says settlements should represent an “end point” that should be “adhered to strictly and on an ongoing basis”.
Christmas was working on a second book, a biography of former National minister Ralph Hanan (most famous for ending the six o’clock swill and capital punishment), but that’s been put on hold while he campaigns full time. Becoming an MP (for National, at least) hadn’t been a consideration for Christmas until Christopher Luxon had “successfully twisted my arm” in 2023. The two got to know each other after Luxon became leader of the opposition, and required some briefing on treaty issues. Ranked 28 on the party list, Christmas would’ve made it into parliament at that year’s election had National not picked up so many electorate seats. Instead, he packed up and joined his husband (also a James, but not a Christmas) in Seattle, where the other James worked for Microsoft.
Sometimes, life closes a door so another can open. Over this term, Christmas got to know Act Party leader David Seymour through work on the Regulatory Standards Bill (now Act). They hit it off, and after Christmas was originally poised to serve on Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Board, he put his hand up to replace van Velden following her surprise exit. Standing for Act in Tāmaki made sense for Christmas, as his political ambitions lie more in the “old-fashioned view” of serving an electorate rather than necessarily holding a ministerial portfolio.
“I’ve seen what good MPs and bad MPs look like, and there’s something to be said that when you get elected by local people, you hold the office on trust from them. They’re taking a chance, and it’s on you to perform. And this electorate showed last time that if they’re not happy with you, they’ll throw you out,” Christmas says, referencing the downfall of former National MP for Tāmaki Simon O’Connor, whose failure paved the way for van Velden’s success.
Christmas has already learned a few simple lessons from Seymour, who has served as the Epsom MP since 2014: “First, you need to convince people in the seat that you’re the guy who’ll pick up the phone at 7pm on a Friday night if something’s gone wrong. Second, there is absolutely no substitute for standing on street corners and bashing on doors.” He reckons his years as a lawyer, and the pressures of having to work hard and fast for people in need, have shaped his commitment to helping people out. “I never want anyone to say, ‘That guy let me down,'” Christmas says. “That’s a very big thing for me.”
Here in St Heliers, where the Act Party saw the strongest support in the 2023 election, Christmas says the biggest issue facing locals is intensification. That’s an issue he says Act has held the line on, while National hasn’t. There’s another thing for conservative locals to consider in choosing between him and the National Party candidate Mahesh Muralidhar, says Christmas. Based on current polling for National, voters may have to ask themselves whether they elect Muralidhar at the possible expense of senior ministers like list-only candidates Nicola Willis and Paul Goldsmith.
“The question will be – although you can never comment on your own prospects – whether [voters] will have to assess who has the best chance of being a senior minister,” Christmas says. “There’s probably two of us in this race who are, and one who isn’t.”
Wait, so of his fellow Tāmaki candidates, who does Christmas reckon could go the distance in parliament? “Max Harris,” Christmas smiles. It wasn’t so long ago that he and the Labour Party candidate, also a prominent and fiercely intelligent lawyer, had caught up for coffee, neither of them knowing they’d be running in the same hotly contested race.
THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A
How much should a pint cost?
It should cost whatever market forces dictate, shouldn’t it? I would like if there was somewhere in New Zealand I could go and pay $10, but I think that’s very unlikely to happen these days.
Do you have a karaoke go-to?
Queen – they’ve been my favourite band since I was six or seven. I don’t like the ones from the end when Freddie was sick, because they’re too sad. I’d probably sing ‘A Kind of Magic’, or ‘I Want It All’.
Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?
There’s some great places out here [in St Heliers]: Moretons, The Pigeon, Water Boy. There’s a really good new place in Mission Bay called Marlin Bar. Probably an out-of-touch answer, but when I see my lawyer friends, we always go downstairs at the Northern Club.
Which three candidates would be on your pub quiz team?
David [Seymour] has to be the first one, because David has exceptional general knowledge and he’s a very bright guy. Simon [Court] is the second one. He’s great; when I got selected, Simon rang me on the first day and said let’s go have lunch. We talked for a couple of hours about everything, from the intricacies of resource management reform to whatever. I’ve got a huge amount of time for him. And I think I’d put [National MP and minister] Nicola Grigg on, because we’ve been buddies for many years. We used to work in Bill English’s office together, and she’d answer the questions I don’t know the answers to.
Which candidate from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?
Arena Williams from Labour. I’ve watched a few of her speeches, and I think she’s really interesting. She seems to have a clear understanding and real interest in where her party comes from; when you listen to her speeches, there’s something there seeping through about the heritage of her party that you don’t necessarily see with some of her colleagues. I like that, because I’m interested in the tradition of New Zealand politics and how they evolve.
Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change?
I think our alcohol laws are still a bit of a mess. There’s things that have happened [recently, like] the law change Cameron [Luxton, Act MP] did around Good Friday trading, so that you don’t have to pretend to be eating a meal at a pub. Personally, I think people should know clearly what the rules are, so I’d sort out the Easter trading stuff because why should you be allowed to buy a drink here on Good Friday, but you can’t buy a bottle of wine to take to a party that same night?
What’s a policy area we’ve been nursing without finishing the glass?
I would like to see property rights go in the Bill of Rights Act; it’s unfinished business, and there’s been a couple of goes to do it. It was going to go in [when the bill was written in the 80s], but 40 years later it’s [still] not there. If you look at the core things for a country, property rights are really crucial – it’s not just land, it’s anything else you might hold too. And it applies to everyone in New Zealand in different ways; look at the complications of Māori land, and having thousands of beneficial owners.
What qualities make a good drinking partner?
The people I love having a drink with are the ones I’ve been friends with the longest; you’ve already said everything, so you don’t have to fill the silence.
Have you ever had a Schnapps election moment that made you rethink your political instinct?
Running for National at the last election. I don’t feel like it’s a regret, because I think National is a great political party, but it’s just not my political party any more.
Up next on One Candidate, One Pint: Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong.
