ACT deputy leader and Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden is retiring from politics at the November election.
The 33-year-old MP for Tamaki won the seat off National at the 2023 election, and says the easy thing would have been to stay in politics.
Van Velden will have been in Parliament for nine years by the election - three years working with leader David Seymour on his successful End of Life Choice bill, and six years as ACT's deputy leader.
"I simply want to do more with life, I'd like to try my hand at the private sector, and potentially at some point in the future coming back to public service."
Van Velden said she told Seymour and the party general secretary before Christmas that she was considering leaving, and confirmed her decision with them earlier this year.
She will remain a minister for now, and the party will confirm a new deputy leader at its general meeting in June.
Brooke van Velden and David Seymour in November 2023. Photo: Jordan Dunn / RNZ
"I've been serving the people of Tamaki 100 percent until this point and that is what I'll continue to do until the election," van Velden said.
She said the catalyst was whether she could commit to the next four years, and she realised she only had one more year in her.
"Now it's a question for me as to what comes next, and that question has been answered by looking for opportunities in the private sector."
Asked if there was any other reason for her sudden retirement, she said, "ultimately you've got to just take a woman at her word".
"I do believe there's more that I can give in the public sector but ultimately I also want to try other opportunities as well, which is why I want to try the private sector.
"I don't think it's any secret that being a politician and public figure isn't an easy life... you can't have external careers and also build a public life," she said.
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden speaking in Parliament on 14 May 2025. Photo: Parliament TV
Van Velden said even if she came back to Parliament in 20 years she would still only be in her fifties, "which is when a lot of people enter Parliament for the first time".
On the decisions she's made in government, van Velden said she's proud of all of them, including the highly controversial changes to the pay equity regime.
"I hand on heart believe that the decisions I made and the actions I took were in the best interests of the country, and ultimately I saved the Budget."
She doesn't have any ambitions "at this point" to be the leader of ACT.
"David has built ACT into a party that I'm very proud to be part of."
Seymour said the party will select a new candidate in the next month to contest the Tāmaki seat and paid tribute to van Valden.
Seymour paid tribute to his colleague.
"I'm losing a colleague, but hopefully not a lifelong friend," he said.
"I think she's had a political career as near to perfect as humanly possible," Seymour said.
Now she's going on her own terms, he said.
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