Why a party rule is keeping Paul Goldsmith in Epsom

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says a National Party rule stops him from trying to move to a safe electorate seat being vacated by Chris Penk.

Goldsmith told RNZ on Tuesday that he "momentarily" thought about running in the seat, Kaipara ki Mahurangi, after Penk announced he was leaving. But he said he decided to stay in Epsom, the electorate he is already selected to contest. He had publicly ruled out the move on Sunday night.

The rule is simple. National's constitution says that once a person has been picked as a candidate for one electorate in a general election, they cannot be nominated for any other electorate in that same election. Goldsmith is already National's chosen candidate in Epsom. When reporters asked him on Tuesday whether he would switch if the rule did not exist, he walked into Parliament's debating chamber without answering (RNZ).

The party would not comment on the rule and pointed reporters to Goldsmith's own remarks.

The seat became available after Chris Penk, a senior National MP and former minister, was sacked from his ministerial roles earlier this month after a leadership challenge. Penk confirmed on 12 August that he will not seek re-election (RNZ). He is expected back in Parliament the following week (RNZ).

Goldsmith took over Penk's Defence, Veterans, Space, GCSB, and NZSIS portfolios. He already held Justice, Arts, Culture and Heritage, Media and Communications, and Public Service. An April reshuffle by the Prime Minister also gave him Pacific Peoples and Digitising Government (national.org.nz).

In New Zealand's voting system, called MMP, MPs can get into Parliament two ways. They can win a local electorate seat directly, or they can get in through their party's list, where seats are handed out based on how many party votes a party gets nationwide. Goldsmith sits at number six on National's list, but the NZ Herald reported on 16 August that his list position alone might not be high enough to get him back into Parliament (NZ Herald). That is why winning an electorate seat matters for him. He started campaigning for an electorate seat in 2023 and has said he will run a two-ticks campaign, urging voters to tick National twice, again (The Spinoff).

The complication is that Epsom is held by ACT leader David Seymour. It is a well-established arrangement for a National candidate to run in an ACT-held seat when the two parties are in a coalition. Seymour said he was "momentarily devastated" at the thought of Goldsmith leaving but thrilled he would stay in Epsom (RNZ).

Goldsmith's public statements on the matter happened over a short period. On 14 August, he did not dismiss a suggestion that he could run in Penk's seat (NZ Herald). By 16 August, the Herald reported he had ruled it out (NZ Herald). On Tuesday, he told RNZ the party rule was the deciding factor, though his claim that he only "momentarily" thought about it sits a little awkwardly against the two days he spent not ruling the idea out.

The result is that National's selection process for Kaipara ki Mahurangi now goes ahead without its most senior available name. The seat is safely National, so whoever wins the nomination will almost certainly enter Parliament after the election. For Goldsmith, the question returns to Epsom and the party list, where his sixth ranking may or may not be enough to get him back in, depending on how well National does overall.

The party organisation, not the parliamentary leaders, runs electorate selections. The rule Goldsmith cited is a standard part of how National manages its candidates, designed to stop sitting MPs from jumping between electorates late in the process. It has not come up before for a senior figure in a position to take over a vacated safe seat, which is what made the brief speculation about a Goldsmith move plausible enough for the Press Gallery to ask questions.

Goldsmith and Penk worked together as recently as February, co-writing a party announcement about legislation to formally recognise all wartime service on Anzac Day (national.org.nz). Penk's exit from the ministry and from Parliament at the election ends that working relationship. The Kaipara ki Mahurangi nomination, and the question of which National candidate fills it, remains open.