ACT leader David Seymour has been stopped by security after he tried to drive a near 80-year-old Land Rover up Parliament’s steps.
The 1948 Land Rover Series I, believed to be the oldest in NZ, was at Parliament as part of a fundraising effort for Manaaki Manawa – The Centre for Heart Research.
Owner and research scientist Julian Paton said the car was being driven from Dunedin to Auckland to raise money for the project.
He hoped to raise $300,000 to fund research into a “revolutionary” new heart valve for children with rheumatic fever.
Paton was met on Parliament’s forecourt by Seymour and his deputy Brooke van Velden this afternoon.
The same vehicle was brought to Parliament more than 40 years ago and was driven up the steps.
As Seymour hopped in and went to drive up the steps, a security guard came over and told him to stop.
“Minister don’t, the Speaker said no,” he said to Seymour, who reversed the Land Rover off the steps and said he believed they had permission.
Seymour said “bureaucracy is alive and well in New Zealand”.
“Sometimes, things are worth doing for a good cause.”
He said you “shouldn’t have to get permission to do every little thing in New Zealand”.
“It’s nearly 80 years old, so I was pretty keen to see how far it could get, but you don’t want the poor people from the parliamentary security to feel uncomfortable.”
He then said MPs should not need permission to drive a vehicle up the steps of Parliament because it was their workplace.
“I think people can use their judgment also just make the point that one of the critical precepts of a free society is that you’re allowed to do what you like unless there’s a rule against it. Now, as far as I’m aware, there’s no rule against it. And we got to get away from this mentality that you’re not allowed to do things unless you know you’ve explicitly got permission to do it.”
A spokesperson for Speaker Gerry Brownlee said he’d make a statement on the incident “in due course”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said at today’s post-Cabinet briefing he wouldn’t comment on the incident. “I’m not interested in political sideshows,” he said. “I’m very, very focused on driving economic growth.”
Not the first vehicle driven up Parliament’s steps by a politician
Seymour is not the first politician to drive a vehicle up the steps of Parliament.
Labour MP Bob Tizard drove his tractor up Parliament’s steps in June 1987 to draw attention to alternative fuels.
In September 2003, National MP Shane Ardern drove up the steps in a tractor to protest Labour’s so-called ‘fart tax’, a plan to levy livestock in the battle against climate change.
While Tizard escaped censure, Ardern was charged with disorderly behaviour and let off with a warning.
Then Speaker of the House Jonathan Hunt labelled Ardern’s stunt as “morally reprehensible”.
“He’s going to cause a complete review of our security system, and that will cost money.”
