February 14, 2026 • 15 mins
ACT Party leader David Seymour delivered his State of the Nation address this morning.
He says this government is on track to produce positive change, but it's not happening as quickly as it could be.
ACT says there are three ways to break our country's slump: equal rights, positive thinking, and a smaller government.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talk SEDB.
ACT Party leader David Seymour delivered his State of the
Nation address this morning. He says the government's on track
to produce positive change, but it's not happening as quickly
as it could be. ACT says the three ways to
break our country's slump equal rights, positive thinking in a
smaller government, among other things, and ACT leader David Seymour
(00:30):
joins me now, David, good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hi Tim.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, before we get into the State of the Nation,
you referred to it. I think in the copy I
saw of your speech it's Valentine's weekend. Are you a flowers,
chocolate or champagne kind of guy?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
How did it go well? I took my fiance to
my State of the Nation speech and the after glow
of Valensine say, I don't know if that's going to
pay off or not, but I did get a little
bit of chocolate over the line too.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh good on you. Now, look, you spend a bit
of your speech warning about the dangers of labor Greens
and to party Mari getting back in. Is that sort
of the argument vote at or this is what we.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Get it's half the argument. My job is to be
a representative, and that means listening to people's concerns and
expressing them in the political arena, so the country goes
in the direction that the people paying the bills wanted to. Now,
the number one thing I hear from people is, look,
if those guys get in, I'm getting out of the
(01:36):
whole country. And I don't know how many people would
follow through on it, but it does show how serious
the people are taking the selection and how concerned they
are about having another dose of what we had just
a couple of years ago, probably worse when you add
in the influence of to Pati Mari and the Greens
to labor. So that's number one. But the main point
(01:59):
of my speech was that confident management is essential for
our country, but it's also not enough. The truth is
that we are slowly falling behind in terms of wages.
When people say there's a cost of living crisis, it's
partly about high prices, but I believe it's really about
(02:19):
the way that wages have not grown fast enough and
people who are used to everything getting a percent or
two better every year, which they have for the last century.
In the last five years. Real per capital wages that is,
wages per person after inflation, the actually gone backwards. We're
not used to that number two As a result of
(02:41):
not earning enough, we seem to be having real problems
balancing the budget. At a government level, we don't have
a clear sense of who we are that's inclusive. We've
had too many stories about our country that exclude half
the people. And we also have a real sense that
government is frustrating and doesn't work for us. So yep,
we're going to keep the other guys out, but the
(03:03):
Party is also prepared to take on some of those
longer term issues that we must address.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
How's the coalition gone? Are you happy with your coalition partners?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it's gone worse than our worst enemies could have predicted.
From their point of view, they were hoping it. They
would hope it would all fall apart. But actually for
the rest of New Zealand, we've had three parties that
have worked together, got through quite a significant amount of
work and been a stable government to boot. So in
(03:35):
that sense, I think it's very positive. But obviously the
reason I joined and vote for and give my time
to the Act Party, as I actually think we need
a smaller, more efficient government, and the one thing that
even our enemies agree with is that we are the
party that is prepared to stick it to government waste
and excess.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, look, your speech listed lots of savings and improvements,
but you also talked about feeling despair because they're working
harder and falling behind. So when do you think the
average New Zealander is going to actually feel the benefits
that you might say already happening.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, I think so far you've seen lower interest rates
that they've halved, inflation has halved, we've seen crime down dramatically,
and we've seen a lot of the more divisive treaty
based policies such as a separate healthcare system gone. So
those are all positives. But my point in the point
(04:33):
in my speech is that if you want to see
real economic growth and wage growth that is going to
make people feel like, yes, I'm really glad I was
born in New Zealand, it's the greatest place. I'm not
even thinking about Australia. Then if we want the next
generation to think that, then we're going to have to
do more than we've been able or prepared to do
(04:53):
in the current government, and that really is the pitch
for ACT. We're not saying everything's tickety boot. We're not
reaching for grab bag sugar hit policies or demonizing part
of the population or anything like that. We're saying, look, guys,
pretty tough. Only five million of us. We're going to
have to get our thinking cats on.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You talked about a long, hard campaign. What are the
biggest challenges that you've got this year that have nothing
to do with winning an election.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
In terms of serving and government. You know, my challenges
are around We've got to keep that school attendance rate rising.
At the end of the day, the number of kids
that go to school and the amount of knowledge that's
passed from one generation to the next. That that's probably
I think that the thing that I'm responsible for that
has the greatest impact. And the other thing is just
(05:41):
keeping the winds coming. Cutting red tape. You know, you
look at all the all the little things we've done.
You can put a garden shed in your back yard,
you can bake a cake, you can run a daycare,
you can grow hemp. So these are maybe not maybe
not life changing for everybody, but all of them just
cut a little bit of red tape for somebody, and
(06:02):
we've got to just keep all of those winds going
while we do the big stuff like the resource management reform,
which is probably the biggest game changer for our long
term prosperity under this goverment.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I think you said the cost of living crisis is
really a productivity for slump. It's not just inflation. Does
that mean that you know, the problem isn't sort of
global price shocks, but there's something structurally wrong with our
economy works well.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
If you look at the real book growth and wages
or productivity, for the last decade, it's been aboutero point
two percent, and for the last five years it's actually
been negative. So you're right. We need new industries, new investment,
new technology because the rest of the world will keep
doing that. And what we find is if we don't
(06:48):
keep up, then we lose the bidding war for doctors
and nurses and medicines. That's where it really hits home.
I mean, you know, it's just something nice about just
focusing on the simpler things in life, but when you
need healthcare, that's when we're bidding in a global market
and you're seeing people going off shore. So We've got
to raise our productivity and that means having an unashamedly
(07:11):
pro business, pro growth, pro investment, anti red tape focus.
That's one of the things that I can proudly say
the act Party brings to government.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Just on that trade deal. By the way, I know
it wasn't necessarily focus of your speech. Where are we
at with getting that across the line? Do you think
are you comfortable with labor seeing the redacted sections of
the agreement under confidentiality or where are you at with that?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, that's a decision for the Trade Minister because he's
got ownership of that document. But I would have thought
that if you're asking them to vote in Parliament to
ratify the trade agreement, then they I should have the
right to see what it is that they're voting for.
So in principle, no that I would say that, no
(07:55):
problem from me. But you know there may be nuances
that the Trade Minister's aware of that will guide his decision,
and I respect his place doing that.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You spoke about a country, the country lacking this positive
and inclusive sense of who we are. Look, do you
think New Zealand will ever feel genuinely united as a people?
Or is the politics of racial division just baked in
for good.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It doesn't have to be, and a lot of people
would say that they can recall periods in our history
when it wasn't and it doesn't have to be in
the future. What I would say is that we've had
this interpretation of the treaty that were Tungua ta Fenoa
and Tanga to Taditi, and your place in the hierarchy
of New Zealand depends on which wave of settlers your
(08:43):
ancestors came from. That's the story that we've been told.
I mean, Jasinda Adirin as recently as five years ago,
was at Waitangi saying this is a partnership between races,
that is division based on your back crupt. And there's
two big problems with it. One is that it just
makes people angsty at each other. But two is it
(09:04):
takes away the idea that you can actually make a
difference in your own life and replaces that with the
idea that, to some extent, where you end up with
in life is predetermined. You're either a victim or a
villain in a script written before you were even born.
And that's wrong. So I look at a more positive
view is that one thing we all have in common,
(09:25):
as kiwis, is that somewhere in our life or our
family history is a story of making a pretty big journey,
a pretty brave change to move to the most remote
major land mass on the planet to try and give
your kids a better future. Now, that is pretty inspiring stuff.
And it doesn't just unite us with one story that
(09:46):
we all have in common. It also means that it
also tells us that the story that created our nation
from the first Polynesian voyage is to the last people
who may have scraped together what they had to arrive
at Auckland International this morning, all of them are people
who are prepared to take a risk for a better tomorrow,
and that I believe is a pretty cool story.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Hey, just quickly on Winston's promising the Mari seats referendum,
where are you at with that?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, it's in the Act Party constitution that there should
be no separate Maoru seats. So this is something that
we have always supported and would always support if it
came up as an issue. But I just make the
point in politics, you can do anything, but you can't
(10:36):
do everything. Like most of life, now you know it depends.
I mean, they're not saying it's the bottom line, they're
just saying that they'll campaign on it. And it remains
one of our policies too. So let's see where it
gets to. Let's see if it really is everybody's priority
by the election.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay, and well, speaking of you, you can't do everything necessarily,
you want to have a crack at getting reducing the
number of ministries. And I printed off the number of
ministries and sort of.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
That's a lot of papers.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I got to about forty seven ministers for different things.
You want to get it down to thirty. I think
you quoted did you say Norway has about twenty we'd
have to have absolutely what's top of the chopping block?
Do you think? And okay, as you said, you know
you can't I can't remember the quote exactly how you
(11:32):
said it about politics. You can't do everything. Will you
be able to do any of that in reality?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, it's something that we believe is essential to make
progress in other areas. At the moment, there are twenty
eight ministers, eight of whom aren't actually part of the cabinet,
but nonetheless the minister's outside cabinet. So the phrase goes.
There's forty one departments. There are eighty two portfolios. You
can be a minister of something and they no department minister.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
For racing as part of mb you know that sort
of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Some departments have twenty odd ministers that they report to.
Other ministers have half a dozen ministries that they're theoretically
in charge of a fragment of, and you add it
all together and you've got a system where everybody and
nobody is in charge. So I know that you know,
I'm not trying to avoid your question. I know that
(12:26):
they are the people who say, okay, well tell us
what one you get rid of. I get it. But
I would just say, look, before this becomes a debate
about who's good and who's bad, and which one's useless
and so on, can we just get to an agreement
that it would be useful if we've had a number
of ministers and ministries more comparable to some of the
other sort of five to ten million sized countries around
(12:49):
the world. Once we've agreed that it would be a
good place to get to, then we can start just
you know, saying, well, who goes and who stays and
all the.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Rest is the number thirty instead of twenty chosen because
in reality you know that it's going to be hard.
You know, there's part of that, not the baubles of
the office, but it's keeping the troops happy knowing that
there's a decent number of ministerial positions for people to
aspire to. Is there something in.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That, Well, we're only saying twenty ministers, okay, well and
thirty departments down from the current forty one. So I
mean we have already done some back of envelope exercises
what will look like, and we'll release more detail as
we get closer to the election. But I just want
(13:34):
people to just sit with the idea that a smaller,
more efficient government may be one of the most important
things we can do to make our country more affordable,
less frustrating, and more united. And once we've sort of
got to that part, then there might be a few
more things to discuss.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Would it be a natural flow on from that that
we would see a smaller public service?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, I think so, because you know, the thing is,
at the moment, if you're a department with that answers
to twenty three different ministers, or if you're a minister
who is responsible for seven different or sort of partly
responsible for seven different departments, and there's lots of examples
like that. Then what you don't have is one person,
(14:18):
one chief one minister, one chief executive, one budget, one
set of goals, and a public accountability that those are
the things being achieved. So you know, that's that's that's
I believe why we are having trouble getting more efficiency government.
It starts at the top. And if we said, look,
here's the minister, here's the department, here's the amount of
(14:39):
money they got, here's the things that they say they're
going to achieve with that money. Then instead of you know,
having a minister for something just to demonstrate that you
care about it, like you know, we've got a minister
for Auckland or whatever. There's no Auckland department, by the way,
then then you have a totally different purpose. A minister
is there to ensure they're getting value for taxpayer money.
(15:00):
And I think if you started doing it that way,
you'd probably end up with a few fewer public servants.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
If I was to go home and my wife was
to say, what did David talk about today? What would
you want? The top issue of my description of your
State of the Nation's speech. What was what do you
want the takeaway? The key takeaway to be.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
A country that your children want to stay in and
the most powerful thing we can do to bring that about.
Lots of things we can't change about New Zealand, but
we can make our government smaller and more efficient and
that has numerous benefits for the rest of society.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Excellent, Hey David, appreciate your time this afternoon. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
For more from the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Listen live to News Talk z B weekends from three pm,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talk SEDB.
ACT Party leader David Seymour delivered his State of the
Nation address this morning. He says the government's on track
to produce positive change, but it's not happening as quickly
as it could be. ACT says the three ways to
break our country's slump equal rights, positive thinking in a
smaller government, among other things, and ACT leader David Seymour
(00:30):
joins me now, David, good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hi Tim.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, before we get into the State of the Nation,
you referred to it. I think in the copy I
saw of your speech it's Valentine's weekend. Are you a flowers,
chocolate or champagne kind of guy?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
How did it go well? I took my fiance to
my State of the Nation speech and the after glow
of Valensine say, I don't know if that's going to
pay off or not, but I did get a little
bit of chocolate over the line too.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh good on you. Now, look, you spend a bit
of your speech warning about the dangers of labor Greens
and to party Mari getting back in. Is that sort
of the argument vote at or this is what we.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Get it's half the argument. My job is to be
a representative, and that means listening to people's concerns and
expressing them in the political arena, so the country goes
in the direction that the people paying the bills wanted to. Now,
the number one thing I hear from people is, look,
if those guys get in, I'm getting out of the
(01:36):
whole country. And I don't know how many people would
follow through on it, but it does show how serious
the people are taking the selection and how concerned they
are about having another dose of what we had just
a couple of years ago, probably worse when you add
in the influence of to Pati Mari and the Greens
to labor. So that's number one. But the main point
(01:59):
of my speech was that confident management is essential for
our country, but it's also not enough. The truth is
that we are slowly falling behind in terms of wages.
When people say there's a cost of living crisis, it's
partly about high prices, but I believe it's really about
(02:19):
the way that wages have not grown fast enough and
people who are used to everything getting a percent or
two better every year, which they have for the last century.
In the last five years. Real per capital wages that is,
wages per person after inflation, the actually gone backwards. We're
not used to that number two As a result of
(02:41):
not earning enough, we seem to be having real problems
balancing the budget. At a government level, we don't have
a clear sense of who we are that's inclusive. We've
had too many stories about our country that exclude half
the people. And we also have a real sense that
government is frustrating and doesn't work for us. So yep,
we're going to keep the other guys out, but the
(03:03):
Party is also prepared to take on some of those
longer term issues that we must address.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
How's the coalition gone? Are you happy with your coalition partners?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it's gone worse than our worst enemies could have predicted.
From their point of view, they were hoping it. They
would hope it would all fall apart. But actually for
the rest of New Zealand, we've had three parties that
have worked together, got through quite a significant amount of
work and been a stable government to boot. So in
(03:35):
that sense, I think it's very positive. But obviously the
reason I joined and vote for and give my time
to the Act Party, as I actually think we need
a smaller, more efficient government, and the one thing that
even our enemies agree with is that we are the
party that is prepared to stick it to government waste
and excess.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, look, your speech listed lots of savings and improvements,
but you also talked about feeling despair because they're working
harder and falling behind. So when do you think the
average New Zealander is going to actually feel the benefits
that you might say already happening.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, I think so far you've seen lower interest rates
that they've halved, inflation has halved, we've seen crime down dramatically,
and we've seen a lot of the more divisive treaty
based policies such as a separate healthcare system gone. So
those are all positives. But my point in the point
(04:33):
in my speech is that if you want to see
real economic growth and wage growth that is going to
make people feel like, yes, I'm really glad I was
born in New Zealand, it's the greatest place. I'm not
even thinking about Australia. Then if we want the next
generation to think that, then we're going to have to
do more than we've been able or prepared to do
(04:53):
in the current government, and that really is the pitch
for ACT. We're not saying everything's tickety boot. We're not
reaching for grab bag sugar hit policies or demonizing part
of the population or anything like that. We're saying, look, guys,
pretty tough. Only five million of us. We're going to
have to get our thinking cats on.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You talked about a long, hard campaign. What are the
biggest challenges that you've got this year that have nothing
to do with winning an election.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
In terms of serving and government. You know, my challenges
are around We've got to keep that school attendance rate rising.
At the end of the day, the number of kids
that go to school and the amount of knowledge that's
passed from one generation to the next. That that's probably
I think that the thing that I'm responsible for that
has the greatest impact. And the other thing is just
(05:41):
keeping the winds coming. Cutting red tape. You know, you
look at all the all the little things we've done.
You can put a garden shed in your back yard,
you can bake a cake, you can run a daycare,
you can grow hemp. So these are maybe not maybe
not life changing for everybody, but all of them just
cut a little bit of red tape for somebody, and
(06:02):
we've got to just keep all of those winds going
while we do the big stuff like the resource management reform,
which is probably the biggest game changer for our long
term prosperity under this goverment.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I think you said the cost of living crisis is
really a productivity for slump. It's not just inflation. Does
that mean that you know, the problem isn't sort of
global price shocks, but there's something structurally wrong with our
economy works well.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
If you look at the real book growth and wages
or productivity, for the last decade, it's been aboutero point
two percent, and for the last five years it's actually
been negative. So you're right. We need new industries, new investment,
new technology because the rest of the world will keep
doing that. And what we find is if we don't
(06:48):
keep up, then we lose the bidding war for doctors
and nurses and medicines. That's where it really hits home.
I mean, you know, it's just something nice about just
focusing on the simpler things in life, but when you
need healthcare, that's when we're bidding in a global market
and you're seeing people going off shore. So We've got
to raise our productivity and that means having an unashamedly
(07:11):
pro business, pro growth, pro investment, anti red tape focus.
That's one of the things that I can proudly say
the act Party brings to government.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Just on that trade deal. By the way, I know
it wasn't necessarily focus of your speech. Where are we
at with getting that across the line? Do you think
are you comfortable with labor seeing the redacted sections of
the agreement under confidentiality or where are you at with that?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, that's a decision for the Trade Minister because he's
got ownership of that document. But I would have thought
that if you're asking them to vote in Parliament to
ratify the trade agreement, then they I should have the
right to see what it is that they're voting for.
So in principle, no that I would say that, no
(07:55):
problem from me. But you know there may be nuances
that the Trade Minister's aware of that will guide his decision,
and I respect his place doing that.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You spoke about a country, the country lacking this positive
and inclusive sense of who we are. Look, do you
think New Zealand will ever feel genuinely united as a people?
Or is the politics of racial division just baked in
for good.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It doesn't have to be, and a lot of people
would say that they can recall periods in our history
when it wasn't and it doesn't have to be in
the future. What I would say is that we've had
this interpretation of the treaty that were Tungua ta Fenoa
and Tanga to Taditi, and your place in the hierarchy
of New Zealand depends on which wave of settlers your
(08:43):
ancestors came from. That's the story that we've been told.
I mean, Jasinda Adirin as recently as five years ago,
was at Waitangi saying this is a partnership between races,
that is division based on your back crupt. And there's
two big problems with it. One is that it just
makes people angsty at each other. But two is it
(09:04):
takes away the idea that you can actually make a
difference in your own life and replaces that with the
idea that, to some extent, where you end up with
in life is predetermined. You're either a victim or a
villain in a script written before you were even born.
And that's wrong. So I look at a more positive
view is that one thing we all have in common,
(09:25):
as kiwis, is that somewhere in our life or our
family history is a story of making a pretty big journey,
a pretty brave change to move to the most remote
major land mass on the planet to try and give
your kids a better future. Now, that is pretty inspiring stuff.
And it doesn't just unite us with one story that
(09:46):
we all have in common. It also means that it
also tells us that the story that created our nation
from the first Polynesian voyage is to the last people
who may have scraped together what they had to arrive
at Auckland International this morning, all of them are people
who are prepared to take a risk for a better tomorrow,
and that I believe is a pretty cool story.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Hey, just quickly on Winston's promising the Mari seats referendum,
where are you at with that?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, it's in the Act Party constitution that there should
be no separate Maoru seats. So this is something that
we have always supported and would always support if it
came up as an issue. But I just make the
point in politics, you can do anything, but you can't
(10:36):
do everything. Like most of life, now you know it depends.
I mean, they're not saying it's the bottom line, they're
just saying that they'll campaign on it. And it remains
one of our policies too. So let's see where it
gets to. Let's see if it really is everybody's priority
by the election.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay, and well, speaking of you, you can't do everything necessarily,
you want to have a crack at getting reducing the
number of ministries. And I printed off the number of
ministries and sort of.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
That's a lot of papers.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I got to about forty seven ministers for different things.
You want to get it down to thirty. I think
you quoted did you say Norway has about twenty we'd
have to have absolutely what's top of the chopping block?
Do you think? And okay, as you said, you know
you can't I can't remember the quote exactly how you
(11:32):
said it about politics. You can't do everything. Will you
be able to do any of that in reality?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, it's something that we believe is essential to make
progress in other areas. At the moment, there are twenty
eight ministers, eight of whom aren't actually part of the cabinet,
but nonetheless the minister's outside cabinet. So the phrase goes.
There's forty one departments. There are eighty two portfolios. You
can be a minister of something and they no department minister.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
For racing as part of mb you know that sort
of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Some departments have twenty odd ministers that they report to.
Other ministers have half a dozen ministries that they're theoretically
in charge of a fragment of, and you add it
all together and you've got a system where everybody and
nobody is in charge. So I know that you know,
I'm not trying to avoid your question. I know that
(12:26):
they are the people who say, okay, well tell us
what one you get rid of. I get it. But
I would just say, look, before this becomes a debate
about who's good and who's bad, and which one's useless
and so on, can we just get to an agreement
that it would be useful if we've had a number
of ministers and ministries more comparable to some of the
other sort of five to ten million sized countries around
(12:49):
the world. Once we've agreed that it would be a
good place to get to, then we can start just
you know, saying, well, who goes and who stays and
all the.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Rest is the number thirty instead of twenty chosen because
in reality you know that it's going to be hard.
You know, there's part of that, not the baubles of
the office, but it's keeping the troops happy knowing that
there's a decent number of ministerial positions for people to
aspire to. Is there something in.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That, Well, we're only saying twenty ministers, okay, well and
thirty departments down from the current forty one. So I
mean we have already done some back of envelope exercises
what will look like, and we'll release more detail as
we get closer to the election. But I just want
(13:34):
people to just sit with the idea that a smaller,
more efficient government may be one of the most important
things we can do to make our country more affordable,
less frustrating, and more united. And once we've sort of
got to that part, then there might be a few
more things to discuss.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Would it be a natural flow on from that that
we would see a smaller public service?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, I think so, because you know, the thing is,
at the moment, if you're a department with that answers
to twenty three different ministers, or if you're a minister
who is responsible for seven different or sort of partly
responsible for seven different departments, and there's lots of examples
like that. Then what you don't have is one person,
(14:18):
one chief one minister, one chief executive, one budget, one
set of goals, and a public accountability that those are
the things being achieved. So you know, that's that's that's
I believe why we are having trouble getting more efficiency government.
It starts at the top. And if we said, look,
here's the minister, here's the department, here's the amount of
(14:39):
money they got, here's the things that they say they're
going to achieve with that money. Then instead of you know,
having a minister for something just to demonstrate that you
care about it, like you know, we've got a minister
for Auckland or whatever. There's no Auckland department, by the way,
then then you have a totally different purpose. A minister
is there to ensure they're getting value for taxpayer money.
(15:00):
And I think if you started doing it that way,
you'd probably end up with a few fewer public servants.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
If I was to go home and my wife was
to say, what did David talk about today? What would
you want? The top issue of my description of your
State of the Nation's speech. What was what do you
want the takeaway? The key takeaway to be.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
A country that your children want to stay in and
the most powerful thing we can do to bring that about.
Lots of things we can't change about New Zealand, but
we can make our government smaller and more efficient and
that has numerous benefits for the rest of society.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Excellent, Hey David, appreciate your time this afternoon. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
For more from the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Listen live to News Talk z B weekends from three pm,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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