The New Conservative Party has selected Dutch-born Dieuwe de Boer as their candidate for Botany in September’s general election.
The seat is held by independent incumbent Jami-Lee Ross, who will be in a fight to retain the seat from National’s Chris Luxon.
New Conservative emerged from the ashes of the Colin Craig-led Conservative party. The current party leader is Leighton Baker, who has led since January 2017. The party advocates for social conservatism and environmental pragmatism coupled with lower taxation and reduced government spending.
Mr de Boer was in the news in January in regards to a raid by police, who suspected de Boer of harbouring an illegal firearm, allegedly retained after the government’s buy-back scheme.
Mr de Boer speculated the raid was politically motivated, in light of his opinions expressed on the Right Minds NZ website he is involved with.
He has been labeled a ‘far-right activist’ by media, a tag he refutes, telling the Times “ I don’t have any alt-right views although there are people who don’t like me and throw that label around. I’m a conservative Christian and a nationalist. I’m not shy about that even if the media deems it unpopular at the moment or if those with an opposing agenda hate it. “
He adds he is “vocal about my views and people can trust me to take principled stands, even if they don’t agree with me on every issue. While that may be unusual for politics, I think voters are tired of the duplicity that is so common for politicians. I can represent all the people of Botany and New Conservative will always support equality under the law for all.”
De Boer states he believes promoting “timeless values, smaller government, and national unity” should not be controversial or “result in people being smeared with horrible labels.”
He trumpets in recent polling (source unavailable) that “ that shows around a third of voters would consider supporting a conservative party”, and adds that other parties have “run on policies to reduce immigration and done very well. I believe there are a lot of voters in East Auckland with conservative views and family values who want to see that reflected in parliament. East Auckland has a lot of families who immigrated here to find a better life and become part of New Zealand, and New Conservative’s focus on national unity is very important to many immigrants, myself included.”
The party opposed the recent Abortion Legislation bill (latterly passed into law). De Boer says the party “promise to repeal it”-should they attain representation in parliament.
He notes his party has backed farmers in opposing zero carbon bill, and have “stood up for law-abiding firearms owners who have been punished with the recent firearms amendments while the government goes soft on gangs.”
When asked for opinion on infrastructure projects for east Auckland, de Boer says”. I would push for prioritising upgrades to Botany’s arterial roads to decrease the amount of valuable time wasted in traffic jams. I also want to promote a shift towards more local decision making to give people more control over regulations that affect their local communities.”
