ACT Party leader David Seymour has offered some advice for his long-time ally the National Party after it suffered a landslide election loss on Saturday.
Seymour told The AM Show National should be "grateful" to Judith Collins who took on the party's leadership under trying circumstances.
"The Nats have obviously got some thinking to do but my view is what you've got to do is hear people," Seymour said on Monday. "Hear their concerns and aspirations, come up with better ideas - if you have some ideas you've got to stand for them on principle and say, 'look, it's not that the other guys are all idiots and it's all easy - these things are hard and we can do better.'"
Based on the election result, ACT gets 10 MPs - up from one - while National loses 12. Seymour said National will have to look at the circumstances surrounding the result.
"I think given all of the circumstances they should be pretty grateful to Judith - but they still have to digest those other circumstances."
In terms of his own party, he said ACT will be in Parliament "opposing and proposing".
"We are going to be holding this Government accountable because if you look at the borrowing, you look at some of the social indicators - things aren't getting better and a lot of that stuff's been lost in the adrenaline of a crisis.
"At the same time, we need to generate more nuanced policies - real solutions - not just throw money at stuff, and if voters start to see more of that coming out of ACT, and they like it, then who knows where we'll end up.
"My goal is to be Winston [Peters], just not a dickhead."
On the End of Life Choice Act, Seymour's Members' Bill, and one of the referendums New Zealanders voted on at the election, he's confident it will pass.
"We're very comfortable with the way that people have voted and we think that there will be [a] success," he said.
