February 16, 2025 • 8 mins
So where do we start with the Act Party leader this week? In the past week, he has been embroiled in controversy over all sorts including a Land Rover stunt, school lunches, teacher-only days, a letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne, and accusations of undermining the Prime Minister.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Music today courtesy of our first guest, David Seymour. Gee,
there's a man who's dominated the news headlines for the
past week. I said to him, you can pick the
music today. What do you want? He said, Mark Knophliss,
So we're going with dire straits. I chose brothers in arms.
Could I still describe you as and Christopher Luxen as such? David? Yeah,
(00:21):
you can?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But can I just say it's one of my favorite songs.
I looked at it on YouTube other day. It's got
one hundred and twenty million views. As for me and Chris,
I were neighbors ten years ago, and we're working together
on a government that is doing so much stuff that
I think our opposition has spun out and decided to
(00:41):
make posibly.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Now, hang on, are you going to behave yourself a
week bit better when your deputy prime minister do a
Winston because he hasn't put a foot wrong, he's been
a statesman.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, I don't know how I could behave any better.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Let me let me count the wise. We've had the
land Rover, the Polkinghorn letter, this well, the school lunch
is on with you on that, to be fair, undermining
your PM. Some people are saying that and the teacher's
only days staush scrap with Erica.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Well, let's let's take them one at a time. First
of all, you mentioned the land rover didn't break a
single will face no consequences. As a result, helped raise
forty five thousand dollars for children with rheumatic fever affecting
their heart valves. And I've got to say, I understand
what it's like to be a farmer. You know, five
(01:33):
minutes in a landrover are then persecuted by half the country.
So I think we can just style it down on
that one. You know what, I'll tell you one thing.
If you live in the EPSOM electorate and you come
to me and you need help, I'll help you. Even
my opponents agree that I'm a good local MP.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And again, but were you poking your nose and where
it shouldn't have been with Polkinghorn. No.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
In fact, if you go to the police website, they say,
if you think you've been treated unfair, we go and
see your local MP, which is what he did. And
you know, the letters subsequently been released on the Herald
and it wasn't really a story. People said, it's nothing
to see here. Didn't talk about whether there was an investigation,
didn't talk about whether he was right or wrong, or
(02:16):
whether he should be investigated or he should be prosecuted.
Didn't talk about anything like that. Just said, here are
a number of concerns that he has passed on to
me and I fear he should be aware of. By
the way, I fully respect your independence, but you know
he felt there was no other.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Way okay to pass Well, agreed to disagree on that one.
What about the are you undermining?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
What do you disagree with?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, I wouldn't have written a letter of support for him.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, it wasn't a letter of support. I think you've
possibly misunderstood what the letter actually said. You have you
read it?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, there you go. And this is the problem, people
going off half cocked without all the facts. Anyway, what's
the next change?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
What pies? I say, got on the school lunches for
dish out a pie on Friday? Apparently it was the
most popular selection. You've had? One pie is not going
to kill a kid.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, one of the biggest problems we have is that
school attendance drops off on the Friday. It's quite badly actually,
but I can tell you that PIE Day as we
had last Friday, was the best attempt at Friday, particularly
for what we used to call low decile schools this year.
So maybe we should be doing it more often. But
(03:29):
I know what you were going to say. You said,
I'm quite undermining the Prime Minister. No, I'm not. He
made a comment about me several years ago, and I
just said, I'm not sure that you should comment if
you don't know all the facts. Now, some people will say, oh,
that's terrible. You can't do that. Everyone has to fall
in line. Three bags forser. Actually, I think that our
(03:49):
democracy is maturing. Voters make different choices, and I am
proud to represent people who choose act. They have a
right to have somebody who speaks for them without saying that,
you know, having a differenceive opinion and somehow the end
of the world. In fact, I think we need to
have more positive differenceive opinion. And I think you had
(04:12):
one more charge.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Not well, No, I haven't finished with school lunches because
I'm with you. I'm with you on school lunches. Is
there a better way to target kids who are hungry?
And I know that kids go to school without a
lunch and they can't learn properly. And I get all
of that, but we're dumping And I know you're saving
a lot of money under your new regime, but is
it the job? Is it the job of the state
(04:34):
to feed the kids? I mean, isn't that the domain
of the parents.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Well, it's no secret I spent three or four years
campaigning against the whole concept, saying it should be gone.
But like a lot of things, you get into government,
you've got a couple of partners and they say, well,
we think it should continue. So you say, all right.
I then to say, by the way, you're responsible for it.
So thanks a lot, guys. So then I thought, what
can I do? I thought, well, if it's going to continue,
(05:01):
whether I agree with it or not, and if we
have to deliver it for all of the kids that
labor delivered it for, whether I agree with that or not,
I'm going to make it the most efficient damn program,
cost effective, quality on time delivery that you can get.
And that is what we've done. People focus on the
hackups in the first two weeks, but hey, look, you know,
(05:21):
none of the people criticizing us are getting ninety five
to one hundred percent delivery by week three, and not
many of them could deliver one hundred and forty three
thousand hot meals every day.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, that's my point. Have we got one hundred and
three thousand kids in this country who can't provide their
own lunch? Are we letting parents off the hook here?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well? You know, obviously I support the position of the government.
I'm part of the government. If you want to look
at what I campaigned on before government, then you'd probably
see that I'm not against your view.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Okay. Well, and the teacher only days the scrap with
Erica on this one. I've got to be care full.
I'm married to a teacher. They can be very dictatorial, David.
My sister's a teacher. And I reckon, you know what
I reckon. And I'll get in trouble with teachers for
saying they have enough days when they can have teacher
only days, they shouldn't be having them when the kids
need to be learning during the school term.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's a widely held sentiment. But if you look at
what's happened here, you know, guy on Espiner made a
totally false accusation. He said that I said no days
in term time and that was undermining Erica. Well, actually,
if you go back to my press release and my
media conference, both of which are still on the record
(06:38):
from last September, what I actually said is it's entirely
up to the Minister for Education. You need permission from
her to close down your school, and I think you
should ask permission because it's not a good message to
students when we tell them they have to go to
school every day that your school shut every second day.
So actually, if you get through to the fact, you'll
(06:59):
find that they're there's no disagreement, but it's something that's
been manufactured by a misquote by guy on Espinner and
of course the misery machine that is our media.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Okay, here's some feedback. Just before I let you go go.
David didn't vote ACT, but maybe, maybe, just maybe I will,
says Sandy. Someone else is going on, well, this is
a crack at me year half cock, Jamie. But I
totally agree with you about school lunches. So I got
half of it wrong in their mind. And here's another
one from a Trump voting extreme right winger. He's accusing
(07:32):
me of being John Campbell, and he says, you embody
the wetwoke, ignorant, urban pino gree swilling lefty who still
votes National. That's not a bad insult, is it, David?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
As insults go, he's really wound that line up. But
I've got to say, having met you many times in person,
I think that's a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I think it's harsh here on Jamie.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
He does have some greed, but it's not pino gree,
it's the top his head.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Good on you, hey, David Seymour, thank you very much
for your time. You behave yourself over the next couple
of weeks. You've got to prepare for the big job,
the deputy prime minister's job.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
All right, hey, thanks having us on the show, James.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Good on you. There we go, David Seymour.
Music today courtesy of our first guest, David Seymour. Gee,
there's a man who's dominated the news headlines for the
past week. I said to him, you can pick the
music today. What do you want? He said, Mark Knophliss,
So we're going with dire straits. I chose brothers in arms.
Could I still describe you as and Christopher Luxen as such? David? Yeah,
(00:21):
you can?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But can I just say it's one of my favorite songs.
I looked at it on YouTube other day. It's got
one hundred and twenty million views. As for me and Chris,
I were neighbors ten years ago, and we're working together
on a government that is doing so much stuff that
I think our opposition has spun out and decided to
(00:41):
make posibly.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Now, hang on, are you going to behave yourself a
week bit better when your deputy prime minister do a
Winston because he hasn't put a foot wrong, he's been
a statesman.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, I don't know how I could behave any better.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Let me let me count the wise. We've had the
land Rover, the Polkinghorn letter, this well, the school lunch
is on with you on that, to be fair, undermining
your PM. Some people are saying that and the teacher's
only days staush scrap with Erica.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Well, let's let's take them one at a time. First
of all, you mentioned the land rover didn't break a
single will face no consequences. As a result, helped raise
forty five thousand dollars for children with rheumatic fever affecting
their heart valves. And I've got to say, I understand
what it's like to be a farmer. You know, five
(01:33):
minutes in a landrover are then persecuted by half the country.
So I think we can just style it down on
that one. You know what, I'll tell you one thing.
If you live in the EPSOM electorate and you come
to me and you need help, I'll help you. Even
my opponents agree that I'm a good local MP.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And again, but were you poking your nose and where
it shouldn't have been with Polkinghorn. No.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
In fact, if you go to the police website, they say,
if you think you've been treated unfair, we go and
see your local MP, which is what he did. And
you know, the letters subsequently been released on the Herald
and it wasn't really a story. People said, it's nothing
to see here. Didn't talk about whether there was an investigation,
didn't talk about whether he was right or wrong, or
(02:16):
whether he should be investigated or he should be prosecuted.
Didn't talk about anything like that. Just said, here are
a number of concerns that he has passed on to
me and I fear he should be aware of. By
the way, I fully respect your independence, but you know
he felt there was no other.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Way okay to pass Well, agreed to disagree on that one.
What about the are you undermining?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
What do you disagree with?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, I wouldn't have written a letter of support for him.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, it wasn't a letter of support. I think you've
possibly misunderstood what the letter actually said. You have you
read it?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, there you go. And this is the problem, people
going off half cocked without all the facts. Anyway, what's
the next change?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
What pies? I say, got on the school lunches for
dish out a pie on Friday? Apparently it was the
most popular selection. You've had? One pie is not going
to kill a kid.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, one of the biggest problems we have is that
school attendance drops off on the Friday. It's quite badly actually,
but I can tell you that PIE Day as we
had last Friday, was the best attempt at Friday, particularly
for what we used to call low decile schools this year.
So maybe we should be doing it more often. But
(03:29):
I know what you were going to say. You said,
I'm quite undermining the Prime Minister. No, I'm not. He
made a comment about me several years ago, and I
just said, I'm not sure that you should comment if
you don't know all the facts. Now, some people will say, oh,
that's terrible. You can't do that. Everyone has to fall
in line. Three bags forser. Actually, I think that our
(03:49):
democracy is maturing. Voters make different choices, and I am
proud to represent people who choose act. They have a
right to have somebody who speaks for them without saying that,
you know, having a differenceive opinion and somehow the end
of the world. In fact, I think we need to
have more positive differenceive opinion. And I think you had
(04:12):
one more charge.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Not well, No, I haven't finished with school lunches because
I'm with you. I'm with you on school lunches. Is
there a better way to target kids who are hungry?
And I know that kids go to school without a
lunch and they can't learn properly. And I get all
of that, but we're dumping And I know you're saving
a lot of money under your new regime, but is
it the job? Is it the job of the state
(04:34):
to feed the kids? I mean, isn't that the domain
of the parents.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Well, it's no secret I spent three or four years
campaigning against the whole concept, saying it should be gone.
But like a lot of things, you get into government,
you've got a couple of partners and they say, well,
we think it should continue. So you say, all right.
I then to say, by the way, you're responsible for it.
So thanks a lot, guys. So then I thought, what
can I do? I thought, well, if it's going to continue,
(05:01):
whether I agree with it or not, and if we
have to deliver it for all of the kids that
labor delivered it for, whether I agree with that or not,
I'm going to make it the most efficient damn program,
cost effective, quality on time delivery that you can get.
And that is what we've done. People focus on the
hackups in the first two weeks, but hey, look, you know,
(05:21):
none of the people criticizing us are getting ninety five
to one hundred percent delivery by week three, and not
many of them could deliver one hundred and forty three
thousand hot meals every day.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, that's my point. Have we got one hundred and
three thousand kids in this country who can't provide their
own lunch? Are we letting parents off the hook here?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well? You know, obviously I support the position of the government.
I'm part of the government. If you want to look
at what I campaigned on before government, then you'd probably
see that I'm not against your view.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Okay. Well, and the teacher only days the scrap with
Erica on this one. I've got to be care full.
I'm married to a teacher. They can be very dictatorial, David.
My sister's a teacher. And I reckon, you know what
I reckon. And I'll get in trouble with teachers for
saying they have enough days when they can have teacher
only days, they shouldn't be having them when the kids
need to be learning during the school term.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's a widely held sentiment. But if you look at
what's happened here, you know, guy on Espiner made a
totally false accusation. He said that I said no days
in term time and that was undermining Erica. Well, actually,
if you go back to my press release and my
media conference, both of which are still on the record
(06:38):
from last September, what I actually said is it's entirely
up to the Minister for Education. You need permission from
her to close down your school, and I think you
should ask permission because it's not a good message to
students when we tell them they have to go to
school every day that your school shut every second day.
So actually, if you get through to the fact, you'll
(06:59):
find that they're there's no disagreement, but it's something that's
been manufactured by a misquote by guy on Espinner and
of course the misery machine that is our media.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Okay, here's some feedback. Just before I let you go go.
David didn't vote ACT, but maybe, maybe, just maybe I will,
says Sandy. Someone else is going on, well, this is
a crack at me year half cock, Jamie. But I
totally agree with you about school lunches. So I got
half of it wrong in their mind. And here's another
one from a Trump voting extreme right winger. He's accusing
(07:32):
me of being John Campbell, and he says, you embody
the wetwoke, ignorant, urban pino gree swilling lefty who still
votes National. That's not a bad insult, is it, David?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
As insults go, he's really wound that line up. But
I've got to say, having met you many times in person,
I think that's a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I think it's harsh here on Jamie.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
He does have some greed, but it's not pino gree,
it's the top his head.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Good on you, hey, David Seymour, thank you very much
for your time. You behave yourself over the next couple
of weeks. You've got to prepare for the big job,
the deputy prime minister's job.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
All right, hey, thanks having us on the show, James.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Good on you. There we go, David Seymour.
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