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Act Leader David Seymour’s infamous appearance on reality television show Dancing with the Stars has continued to dog him: “Less dance twerking more policy tweaking please,” says Craig Stobo, LGFA chair.

Adds an investment chief: “Hopeless. He should return to Dancing with the Stars.”

When survey respondents were asked to rate Seymour’s performance in holding the Coalition Government to account on a scale from 1 = not impressive to 5 = very impressive, he received a score of 2.31/5.

The Act party relaunched earlier this year, unveiling a new logo and a focus on freedom.

It announced a freedom to earn, and a freedom of education policy to go alongside its freedom of speech pledge.

Seymour is hoping to boost Act back into the 6 to 8 per cent territory it occupied between 1996 (6.1 per cent) and 2002 (7.1 per cent).

“Seymour is a lone voice and the media representation of him is as a shrill,” says Cooper and Company’s chief Matthew Cockram. “It is a shame really, as he is smart and articulate with good instincts and a heart that wants the best for New Zealand.”

Independent director Cathy Quinn says Seymour is impressive but needs more MPs to be able to achieve more. “I admire his positivity nonetheless,” she says.

A transport chief suggested: “he’s actually better than I expected for a one-man band.”

“By all accounts a nice guy albeit somewhat quirky — while stiff on the dancefloor — largely invisible in this term,” says Deloitte’s Thomas Pippos.

One of Seymour’s most public achievements this year has been the progress made on his voluntary euthanasia private members bill, which would allow terminally ill adults to request assisted dying. The End of Life Choice Bill is due to return to the House tomorrow for a fourth debate. Following the mosque attacks, he labelled the gun buyback scheme a waste of time, noting that the “people who are prepared to line up in the full public glare and hand in their firearms at below-market rates are not the people we should be worried about”.

A banker commended his passion, noting that at times he seems to be the only voice of reason within Parliament: “He was able to shame the Government into retaining the essential features of charter schools and has embarrassed it on its largely ineffectual gun buy-back programme.”