After Labour lost the 1990 election in a wipeout and its neoliberal faction lost influence, ACT was built mostly by Douglas' former party supporters as a new political party for 1996. The introduction of proportional representation gave minor parties a greatly increased chance of getting into parliament. Former Labour MP Richard Prebble unexpectedly won the safe Labour seat of Wellington Central, and served as ACT party leader from after the election until 2004. Under Prebble's leadership the party held nine seats in Parliament. Rodney Hide served as leader from 2004 to 2011. ACT was briefly led by former National Party leader Don Brash for the 2011 election, after which the party caucus was reduced to one seat.
ACT gave support to the Fifth National Government from 2008 to 2017. It is currently led by David Seymour, who became the party's leader in October 2014 and has been an elected MP of the party since September 2014. During the 2017 election, ACT retained its sole seat in Epsom and received 0.5% of the party vote.[25] ACT rebounded in the 2020 election, winning 10 seats with 7.6% of the party vote.[26] In the 2023 election ACT increased its share of the party vote to 8.6% and picked up an additional seat—the party's best result since its founding.[27]
^"Young Act". Young ACT. 1 December 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
^"Party profile: ACT Party — NZ Election 2020". Your complete guide to NZ Election 2020 – Policy. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2020. The ACT Party (Rōpū ACT) is a right-wing libertarian party that advocates free market policies and reducing the role of government.