ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden won't seek re-election, but could return to politics

Tuesday, 24 March 2026

ACT Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden will leave Parliament this year, but she isn’t ruling out a return at some point in the (somewhat distant) future.

Van Velden has been one of ACT’s strongest MPs, both in Government and in Opposition. While she has been in Parliament for six years as an MP, she worked for three years prior as a staffer in David Seymour’s office.

After nine years, she said that was enough (for now).

“I’ve looked at my career and I thought, by the time we get to the 2026 election I will have done nine years of public service. Being 33, that’s a lot,” she said.

She said her reasoning was simple: “I want to try new opportunities.”

Van Velden’s announcement came somewhat out of the blue. The ACT Party called a last-minute press conference on Tuesday morning, which the entire party caucus attended.

Van Velden had also been seen as a potential future leader.

As a campaigner, she had shown her strength in 2023. She won ACT's second electorate seat, taking Tāmaki off National for the first time since 1960.

Van Velden said there had been 'many phone calls' between her and Seymour about this decision. He tried to talk her out of leaving.

“He’s been trying to convince me to carry on, but ultimately I have made up my mind,” she said.

Seymour said it was no secret he valued having van Velden in the party.

'She's had a political career as near to perfect as humanely possible. She has risen to the top at a very young age. She has won an electorate no one thought they could win. She has been involved in historic changes to law. She has been a very effective and exceptionally young Cabinet minister.

“Now, she is going on her own terms and I admire that a lot,' he said.

In Government, she has been in Cabinet as the Minister for Workplace Relations and Internal Affairs.

She shepherded through many reforms of workers’ rights and the Holidays Act, which supporters celebrated as improving flexibility and the country’s competitiveness in a global employment market. But critics, which included every workers’ union, said she was attacking workers’ rights and making it easier for companies to fire and underpay their staff.

She said her change to the Equal Pay Act, last year, “saved the Budget”. By scaling back the ability for workers in female-dominated professions to make pay claims based on gender discrimination, the Government saved $12 billion over the next four years.

Asked if she had regrets about, van Velden said she was an optimistic person.

“I’m proud of all the decisions that I’ve needed to make in Government… I hand on heart believe that the decisions I made and the actions that I took were in the best interest of the country. And ultimately, I saved the budget,” she said.

The party would need to look for a new deputy leader and Tāmaki candidate.

Seymour said he believed ACT could keep the seat which van Velden won and he said there would be “collegial” discussions to select a new deputy.

Minister for Courts Nicole McKee, third on the party list, said she didn’t expect to be handed the role. With the caucus standing beside her, McKee said: “I would expect that every single member on this stage should put their hands up.”

As for van Velden’s future beyond politics, she said she wanted to work in the corporate world in New Zealand. And maybe sometime in the future, she said she could end up returning to politics or public service.

At 33 years old, van Velden was the youngest person to ever serve in New Zealand’s Cabinet. She said she could return to politics when she was in her 50s, or later, which was the age many people started their careers in Parliament.