‘Enormously disappointed with National’: Paul Henry announces candidacy for ACT

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

A version of this story said Paul Henry was “enormously disappointed with National”, and the Prime Minister’s performance especially. This was incorrect. Henry said he was “enormously disappointed with National” in response to a question about the Prime Minister’s performance over the past three years.

Cameron Brewer, one of National’s newest ministers and the party’s first MP to comment on Paul Henry’s candidacy for ACT, said he trusts National’s candidates “will always get the better” of Henry.

“I've known Paul in a past life, and I wish him all the best,“ he said.

“Hopefully Paul can enjoy the process, and I look forward to him being in debates with National Party people.”

Henry was announced as ACT’s newest candidate for the November 7 election on Tuesday, saying he’s “enormously disappointed with National”, when asked about the prime minister’s performance.

Speaking from a rooftop bar in central Auckland, Henry responded to the ‘why ACT’ question.

“The nature of being a centrist party, centre-right centrist party, is you have to be a little bit populist,” he said, explaining why he had fallen out of love with National, and in answering a question about what he’d made of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s performance.

“What happens if you run a party that wants everyone to vote for them, is you end up doing nothing,” Henry said.

“This is probably why the single reason why ACT is so important, because someone needs to hold National to account.”

When asked about when he had switched to supporting ACT from National, he said it was “several years ago”.

“You know it was probably after John Key, it was probably after John Key, but during Covid that was when the nasty rubber hit the road,” Henry said.

ACT Party leader David Seymour said Henry, a list-only candidate, was “a wonderful addition to the ACT team”.

“We all know him as Mr Bombastic, but I've got to know a very thoughtful and deeply passionate New Zealander in Paul Henry,” Seymour said of the veteran radio and television broadcaster.

“He doesn't just communicate ideas; he infects rooms with enthusiasm.”

Henry, who until today was a member of TVNZ’s board, said the party’s board ratified his candidacy on Monday night.

“I signed the documents about a minute before I phoned the chairman of TVNZ about 20 minutes ago,” he said.

Henry said he understood the burning question for most people about his move into politics would be “why?”.

“Standing before you is an uncommonly handsome older gentleman who clearly doesn't need a new career, so why would I do this?” he told gathered news media.

“Put simply, my wife and I have 10 grandchildren between us. … And as I looked at them, as someone who cares very much about this country and has always been interested in politics, I thought, what is the chance that as you grow a little older, you will have the same opportunities that your grandfather had when he was growing up in paradise?”

He said his turning point was a poll that showed Labour could form the next government.

“Let me tell you: if they do that, it will be a complete disaster. Not because Labour is always a complete disaster, which they are, but because this is a particularly vital election,” he said.

“In the last three years, the country has been nudged in the right direction, but only nudged. It needs a huge lurch in the right direction.”

Henry said a country cannot borrow or tax its way to prosperity, or achieve prosperity “with separatism and internal fighting”, which he said a left-leaning coalition would deliver.

On working in coalition with NZ First

Henry said he used to host Traitors so he “knows a little bit more about Winston and New Zealand First than anyone else”.

He said he had no concerns about the stability of any coalition formed between the three after the election, because it would be completely different to the current one.

“I think it will be a lot better if ACT goes in with more members of Parliament because it will have more say. And you know, I look at some of the policies that New Zealand First sprinkles - sugar hits basically - and they're not all bad. I mean, there are some that they sprinkle out there, and you think, oh yeah, that makes sense. Maybe we'll do it.”

Ministerial ambitions

Henry also admitted that he would like to be a minister in a coalition government.

“If I'm painfully honest, yes, I want to be a minister. Why do I want to be a minister? As I said before, I'm 65 years old. I'm not doing this to waste my time or anyone else's.

“So yes, I want to be a minister because I want the opportunity to make as much of a difference personally as I can,” he said.

He did not point to any particular portfolios of interest, acknowledging “who knows what might be on the table”.

A cancer hospital

Not one to approach things slowly, Henry also managed to pitch a new hospital in his first press conference on the campaign trail.

“One of the things I'd love to do is build a cancer hospital here, a world-class cancer hospital,” he said.

“It'll cost multiple billions of dollars. But I think you could easily get a group of wealthy New Zealanders to stump up with about 10 billion easily. The rest of it, we would borrow, but that would be an investment in New Zealand's future.”

He said it would be a world-class facility that people would travel from overseas to visit.

But asked for more detail, Henry said he hadn’t worked that out yet. “You know me, I'm a big picture man. I haven't the worked on the detail,” he said.

Seymour, when asked for his opinion on the pitch, said all of Henry’s points were correct: New Zealand’s hospital infrastructure is failing, there is a huge amount of debt and ACT has driven the initiative to spend more money on cancer.