Before entering national politics, Smith was a
lawyer. He was a founding member of the
Christian Democrats, which later became
Future New Zealand. Future New Zealand then joined with
United New Zealand to form the modern United Future New Zealand. For the , the Christian Democrats formed a coalition with
Christian Heritage New Zealand, and he was ranked 13th on the
party list of the resulting
Christian Coalition, but he did not contest an electorate. Like his associates,
Larry Baldock,
Bernie Ogilvy,
Paul Adams and
Marc Alexander, Smith only served one term before he left Parliament at the
2005 New Zealand general election, given that his party polled only one-third of its previous electoral support. In the
2008 election, Smith stood for
United Future in the electorate of
Hutt South. ==References==