Todd Stephenson

Todd Michael Stephenson is a New Zealand lawyer and politician. He was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives as a list MP for ACT New Zealand at the 2023 New Zealand general election.

His prior career was in the pharmaceutical industry.

Early life Stephenson was born in Lumsden and educated in Invercargill, attending James Hargest College and later gaining a law degree from the University of Otago.

Political career

Stephenson has been a member of ACT for nearly 30 years, since its formation, and formerly worked for ACT's former president Catherine Isaac. He was attracted to the party by its focus on "private enterprise and individual freedom". He has been elected to the ACT party board twice. At the time of his selection he was living in Sydney, Australia. He subsequently moved to a house he already owned and rented out in Queenstown. During the campaign, Stephenson was interviewed by Jack Tame on Q+A on ACT's policy of an independent review of medicine-buying agency Pharmac. Stephenson said Pharmac needed to do a better job engaging with its stakeholders, and raised the possibility that treatment decisions should be made with a productivity focus in mind. Stephenson identified the cost of living as a particular issue for his electorate, with rents for workers in Queenstown being unaffordable. He was elected to Parliament ranked fourth on the ACT party list. In his first term, he is ACT spokesperson for arts, culture and heritage; corrections; finance; health; justice; police; the public service; and tourism, and also the party whip. In 2024 he was appointed a parliamentary private secretary to the Associate Minister of Health, David Seymour, advising Seymour on Pharmac and Medsafe.

In April 2024 Labour MP Rachel Boyack called for Stephenson's removal as ACT spokesperson for the arts, after an interview in which he revealed he doesn't believe taxpayers should fund the arts sector, and "took 20 minutes to think of a single New Zealand author and the only artistic experience he could think of was that he went to see the musical Hamilton in New York".

In late May 2024, Stephenson sold off his shares in health companies Chimeric Therapeutics, CSL Limited and Johnson & Johnson following allegations by Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni that these shares created a conflict of interest in his role as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the associate health minister.

Personal life Stephenson lives in Queenstown with his partner Alex, who is Australian.