The coalition promise David Seymour admits he hasn't started on

Thursday, 20 November 2025

David Seymour said he might get to the policy next year.

ACT leader David Seymour has admitted that work has yet to begin on a beneficiary policy promised in his coalition agreement with National.

The National and ACT coalition agreement included a promise to “develop an approved pool of doctors who can issue medical certificates to go onto a health and disability related benefit”.

The policy was aimed at lowering the number of people on the supported living payment - currently 107,000 - and was based on an ACT campaign promise.

“It will increase the number of cases that are picked up as fraud, as there will be more active inquiries into cases, and doctors will feel empowered to offer a frank opinion,” Seymour said of the policy ahead of the last election.

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But asked by The Post this week whether he had “got anywhere” on the policy, Seymour said he hadn’t.

Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says he is happy the Government has seemingly dropped the policy.

“We haven’t - but none the less, there is still time,” Seymour said.

Asked if he had received any policy advice on the matter, he said he had not.

“I haven’t discussed it with Louise [Upston, social development minister]. We’ve been pretty happy with the electronic income management work she’s already done. And look, if we get to that in the third of three years, then we’ll be pretty happy.”

Despite this, Ministry of Social Development general manager of client service delivery Graham Allpress said work actually had begun towards the “intent” of the agreement - detailing a different policy of “proactive case management”.

“Phase one of the Approved Doctors coalition agreement has been implemented and represents progress toward the intent of the agreement. Phase one utilised existing MSD resources to increase proactive case management for Jobseeker- Health Condition or Disability clients aged 18-24 years with part time work obligations,” Allpress said in a statement.

The Post lodged an Official Information Act request on the matter in August, but the Ministry of Social Development has yet to respond.The agency has breached Ombudsman requirements by extending the response out while not giving a new due date.

Green Party welfare spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March was pleased the Government had not progressed work on what he saw as a silly idea.

“If they’re not going to progress with one of the items in the coalition agreement, this is a good one to not touch, because at the end of the day this was always just about beneficiary bashing and not actually about making improvements,” Menéndez March said.

The current system was already overly-punitive and required people with life-long disabilities to spend money on doctors confirming that they were still disabled, he said.