New Conservative
Kevin Stitt
New Conservative Board Chair
Helen Houghton New Conservative Co-Leader. 
Ted Johnston New Conservative Co-Leader.
New Conservative is pleased to announce the appointment of interim Co-Leaders, Helen Houghton and Ted Johnston.
For the year to date we have been led by the Board. It has been encouraging to see we have maintained our results in the polls, and people are joining the party on a very regular basis, following our regular press releases and social media activity. However, the time has come to recognise the need for specific leadership to take us through the next phase of our journey.
This is an interim measure which will be assessed in six months time, but in saying that, the decision we have made will not be regarded with any less importance than if this was a permanent appointment. This appointment comes with the Board’s full support.
Helen lives in Christchurch, Ted in Auckland. They are both Kiwis, Helen of European descent, Ted of Samoan and European. They are both strong people who will call a spade a spade. They both have a long history of effective community involvement and want to serve the party to the best of their ability and for the good of the nation. They have already shown that as dedicated candidates and Board members.
We commend these two as Co-Leaders and welcome any questions to be directed to them personally. A brief statement from each follows.
Ted Johnston BSc BA LLB, Co-Leader
I am a Criminal Barrister. I grew up in Otara, and have worked daily in the South Auckland Courts for almost 30 years. I have degrees in Arts, Science and Law from Auckland University. I have been involved in a multitude of community organisations for over 40 years. I am married with 8 adult children. I see the results of failed government policies, housing costs and shortages, mental health problems, poverty and crime everyday. When in parliament, New Conservative will change things.
As new Co-leader of New Conservative, I am not content for it to be a voice in the wilderness, nor can I wait any longer for a seat around the table in parliament. This next election will be the time for New Conservative to speak for its members and recognise the will of ordinary New Zealanders.
Over recent years there has been an increasing loss of values, and failure of government to serve the people.
Parliament has developed a split, with the left caring for workers, but forcing their amoral ideology on all. The right builds a strong economy but has little charity. Voters often make the best of a bad choice.
New Conservative is a centre-right party that caters for ordinary New Zealanders, business people and workers.
New Conservative believes in providing good quality of life for all, and traditional kiwi values.
- We adamantly support and defend our freedoms and rights under New Zealand’s democracy.
- We believe in conservation of the environment.
- And underpinning all this we need a strong economy, as a base to support and provide for our needs.
New Conservative’s two-year journey towards the next election will be a long and hard road, but we have unshakeable belief in our aims, our values, our cause, and our people.
If you believe in a better New Zealand for all, come and see us, join us. Help make New Zealand the best it can be. The journey to 2023 starts today.
Ted Johnston BSc BA LLB
New Conservative Co-Leader
Helen Houghton:
Appalled by the increasing overreach of this current government in every area of our lives from controlling the water, our education centres right through to our speech, I welcome this opportunity to serve the party and the nation. As Co-Leader of New Conservative, I want to be clear – we are not a ‘team’ of 5 million but a multicultural nation with a make-up of many cultures, beliefs and ideologies. We are a nation of individuals, families and communities, not all part of the same team.
We are resilient, creative, bold, capable individuals, working together in communities and with our families as we each make our own informed decisions in life.
We are a free-thinking, free-spirited nation. It is time for truth not terror and tyranny.
New Conservative stands for freedom, family, and a thriving future as we see all these things are under threat.
I do not believe in victimhood or privilege.
I am an ordinary citizen, just like you. I have lived hardships, but I have a difference. It is against all odds that I co-lead this party. A runaway street kid from a life of abuse, violence and dysfunction with all that that entails, to a primary school teacher and the founding director of a charitable trust, and now a Law student. I know too well the issues our society is struggling with from broken families, broken mental health and addiction services, to broken housing. We need solutions, not separatist policies which do not move the people forward in unity. New Conservative has solutions with common sense, practical, realistic policies.
New Conservative has a new language, set apart from the status quo. We empower, equip, and we bring hope for a brighter New Zealand. A New Zealand which holds on to our moral compass, and to the rights of every New Zealander, every parent, every individual, to be protected, and to be all they were created to be.
Helen Houghton
New Conservative Co-Leader
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