Toni Gae Severin is a New Zealand politician. She was a Member of Parliament for

ACT New Zealand ACT New Zealand (; ), also known as the ACT Party or simply ACT, is a Right-wing politics, right-wing, Classical liberalism, classical liberal, Right-libertarianism, right-libertarian, and Conservatism, conservative List of political parties i ...

from 2020 until 2023.

Early life and career

Severin grew up in Invercargill. After moving to Christchurch, she worked as a laboratory technician for

Canterbury District Health Board The Canterbury District Health Board (Canterbury DHB or CDHB; ) was a district health board with the focus on providing healthcare to the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury region of New Zealand, north of the Rangitata River. It was responsibl ...

for 14 years. At the age of 21, she was diagnosed with

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

. Later, she completed a diploma in marketing at

Christchurch Polytechnic Ara Institute of Canterbury, often simply referred to as Ara, is an institute of technology in Canterbury, New Zealand. It was formed in 2016 from the merger of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) and Aoraki Polytechnic. A ...

. Severin is a business owner with her husband, Richard. The Companies Register shows her as director and shareholder of Vess 2013, a residential rental company, and Jet-X Wellington, which steam-cleans building exteriors. Severin continued to be involved with these companies through her political career, as shown by a June 2023 report on MPs' financial interest disclosures. A third company, Unique Links NZ, a jewellery wholesaling company, was removed from the Companies Register in 2021 for failing to file an annual return.

Political career

Severin unsuccessfully contested four elections for ACT before finally being elected a member of Parliament in 2020. In the

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

elections, she was selected for

Christchurch Central Christchurch Central is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate in the South Island city of Christchurch. The electorate was established for the 1946 election and, until 2011 had always been won by the Labour Party. Since 2008, the incumbent ...

. Her party list placement in 2008 was 54th and she finished sixth of nine candidates in the electorate. In 2011, she was ranked 17th on the party list and finished last of six electorate candidates. In 2014, she was placed 11th on the party list and came sixth of eight candidates. Severin transferred to

Christchurch East Christchurch East, originally called Christchurch City East, is a current New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It was first created for the and was abolished for two periods, from 1875–1905 and again from 1946–1996. It was last created fo ...

for the 2017 general election and was placed 10th on the ACT party list. She was last out of the seven candidates.

Member of Parliament

In the 2020 general election, Severin contested Christchurch East for a second time, and was ninth on the party list. She finished fourth of nine candidates in Christchurch East, but ACT won 7.6% of the party vote. This entitled it to ten MPs, including Severin. Severin was a member of the Health and the Regulations Review select committees. She was ACT's spokesperson on ACC, corrections, and disability issues. Severin outlined her political philosophy and priorities in her maiden statement. She championed free marketing and

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

, and stated her intention to advocate on behalf of small business in Parliament. For the 2023 general election, ACT moved Severin down its party list from 9th to 14th, which was not a high enough ranking for her to be re-elected. She also unsuccessfully contested Christchurch East, coming fifth place with 1,679 votes.

Political views

Severin is a licensed gun owner and believes the gun control laws passed after the Christchurch mosque attack was rushed and would not have prevented the attack. Severin delayed receiving her

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

vaccination after seeking medical advice due to a pre-existing condition.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Severin, Toni Living people ACT New Zealand MPs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand list MPs Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Year of birth missing (living people) Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2011 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2014 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2023 New Zealand general election