Deputy Prime Minister and ACT leader David Seymour says the coalition remains well placed to win the next election, despite polling showing its chances of returning to government have fallen.

Speaking on Chris Lynch Media, Seymour was asked what the coalition was doing wrong, after the New Zealand Herald’s poll of polls showed its likelihood of being reelected had continued to drop.

“I read that story and it says that the coalition has a 70 percent chance of being reelected. That means the likes of the Greens and others have a 30 percent chance of winning. I think if I had to choose between a 70 and a 30, I’d stay where we are,” Seymour said.

Seymour said he understood why voters were frustrated, with New Zealanders facing economic pressure and global uncertainty.

“I think it’s true to say that over the last two or three years a lot of sacrifices have been made and it hurt when we thought we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, only to have the light shut off again by circumstances beyond our control overseas. I can understand that people aren’t exactly in a great mood or thrilled with anything at the moment.”

But Seymour defended ACT’s record in government, saying the party’s achievements were not always headline-grabbing.

“If you look at the health and safety at work reforms, helping small businesses get on with the job of serving their customers, growing wealth, creating more jobs, that’s not sexy, but it’s important.

“We can talk about anti money laundering, regulation of various sectors from hemp to housing to hairdressers, getting rid of the earthquake laws, making it easier for licensed firearm owners. You can talk about the Holidays Act, which has been a nightmare. Brooke van Velden’s fixing that. More medicines. There’s a huge amount of work that we’ve done, none of which is really sexy in itself.”

Seymour was asked whether ACT needed more politically attractive policies, particularly as the Greens continued to rise in the polls. He said some ideas could sound appealing but good government required a wider view, including on proposals such as a digital services tax targeting large international technology companies.

“The whole world is working on some sort of digital services tax and the problem is that the Americans are heavily opposed to it because most of those companies are American. You have to decide, given the relationship you have with them and the other pressure that they might put on, do you want to do that for what turns out to be quite a small amount of money in the context of the wider government?”

He said New Zealand also had to consider the possible economic consequences of provoking a trade response.

“When you look at the cost to the New Zealand economy, say of the Americans putting up tariffs the way that they have done in the case of many countries, you’d probably say that’s going to make New Zealand worse off overall. If you want to give them a points decision on sexiness, you can, but if you want the New Zealand government to actually be aware of all of the issues, balance them up and govern wisely, then I’m not sure that they do.”

Seymour also defended ACT’s policy to gradually raise the superannuation age to 67, saying the policy was non-negotiable regardless of its electoral cost.

“We say it every election year, and I know some people don’t vote for us because of this policy, but I’m not going to run for office and bankrupt New Zealand, then leave someone else to clean up the mess.”

Seymour said demographic change meant the current settings were unsustainable.

“When super was introduced in 1975, the average New Zealander only lived to 72 years of age. Now it’s 83, so that’s an extra 11 years of being eligible for the pension on average. People back in the 70s were having two to three children on average. Now the average couple is having one and a half children.

“You’ve actually got almost twice as long that a person spends on the pension, and you’ve got half as many children paying for it. Thirty years ago there were nine taxpayers for every person on super. Now there’s four, and in another 20 years there will be two taxpayers for every person on super. This isn’t going to work.”

He said Treasury had already raised concerns about the long-term fiscal outlook.

“The Treasury has been sounding the alarm bells. They’ve said, if you keep doing this, you will get to a debt of 200 percent of GDP.”

Seymour said New Zealand could either plan for change or be forced into it during a crisis.

“Number one is we just wait and hope, and what I suspect will happen is that there will be a big crisis. There’ll be an earthquake, a virus, a financial crisis, something we haven’t even thought about yet. All of a sudden the New Zealand government will have a hard time borrowing because people won’t believe they can balance their budget.

“The easy way and the honest way is to say, right, this change is going to happen. It’s happening in Australia, it’s happening in Germany, it’s in the United States, it’s happening basically everywhere. We need to be upfront about making this change as well.”

He said the increase could be phased in gradually.

“We should start putting it up by two months every year for 12 years, maybe three months every year for eight years until it gets to 67.”

On free speech and professional regulation, Seymour was asked about ACT’s concern that regulators were becoming ideological enforcers. The question followed the removal of a peer-reviewed paper by a Māori clinical psychologist from a professional journal, after concerns were raised that keeping the article available was inconsistent with the college’s values.

“The law that Todd Stephenson proposed last week would apply to the kinds of courses and qualifications that are forced on professions. It would say those qualifications, those courses, those codes of conduct cannot require people to affirm something that is politically contentious. That’s all we’re saying.”

Seymour said the journal issue showed a wider cultural problem.

“I would have thought that the basic idea of science being about conjecture and refutation, putting forward a theory and allowing others to criticise it, regardless of how it makes people feel or how it rubs up against existing belief structures, that is the point of science.

“The idea that you can’t have an article challenging the status quo in a medical journal makes you ask, what the hell is the point of a medical journal? Who will be responsible when people who are vulnerable, who require better treatment, don’t receive it because these dogmas were not challenged in the exact journals that exist for challenging dogmas?”

He said New Zealand had lost sight of important principles.

“It shows just how big a problem we have culturally in this country. We have abandoned the values of the enlightenment, and those of us who understand and value them need to do everything we can to promote the virtues of a free society.”

Asked how ACT planned to lift its polling, Seymour said the party would not campaign on giveaways.

“There’ll always be political parties that want to take with one hand and give with the other, and there’ll always be people that will vote for a free handout. But there’s got to be a party that represents people who understand where wealth actually comes from.

“That is people saving, investing, having new ideas, working hard, producing products that their customers want at a price they can afford to consume. That means less red tape and stupid rules. That means less government waste sucking all the profit out of successful enterprises. It means less tall poppy syndrome and more celebration of success.”

He said the choice was straightforward for the right voter.

“If that’s what you want, the ACT Party is not the party for you. But if you want to see this country succeed the only way that we know it can, and that is by creating the conditions for people to build bigger companies that produce better products that are more affordable for consumers, then that is the kind of person that might want to support ACT.”

Seymour said ACT’s approach might not always make headlines.

“It will have the huge advantage that it will work.”