Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on David Seymour's first significant outing as Acting Prime Minister

ACT leader David Seymour's had to step up over the last few days, as Prime Minister Luxon spends time working on relationships overseas.

Luxon's been in China and Europe, meaning Seymour's had to address the media as part of a post-Cabinet press conference - and answer questions.

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls says Luxon's taken all the necessary steps to ensure both Deputy Prime Ministers were prepared for the role ahead of the next election.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb Times took local politics. I'm joined by News Talks.
He'd be political editor. Jason Wolves, Good morning, Jason.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good Davy wi us Our, deputy Prime Minister, had his
first outing is acting prime minister over the last twelve
days or so, and while there'd been some nervousness about it,
but what do you know, the sun still rose. Life
went and mister Seymour proved that he understands the gig
and can be a professional politician.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Absolutely, the world did not end. There were some doom
and gloom predicted if acting Prime Minister David Seymour took over.
For the most part, you know, I would probably wager
that most people around the country didn't even know that
there had been a change. To be honest, the Prime
Minister was in China, then he was at NATO in Europe,
and that meant that David Seymour, who had just recently
taken over from Winston Peters, took the reins of the

(00:59):
Prime Minister's office. Now the Prime Minister's still in charge,
but it just basically means some of the more day
to day operations the Prime Minister falls to David Seymour.
One of them is addressing media, so he had a
post cabinet press conference on Monday where it was more
or less the same as Luxon did it. I mean,
David Seymour has a little bit more of, let's say,

(01:19):
a cheeky flare when he answers some questions and sometimes
he takes cracks at the opposition and various different things
like that. The Prime Minister does that as well, but
there was nothing that I saw that made me think, well,
hang on a second, this isn't very statesmanly, and it's
kind of be in the points the whole time of
having both Seymour and Winston in those senior positions, because

(01:40):
the Prime Minister, what he's deliberately done is he's built
a coalition that doesn't just last this time, he's looking
at for it to last for the next election as well.
And the way you do that is by giving these
other parties you maintain their actual essence of a party,
so the act party still behaves in an act party way,
and same with New Zealand first while still holding ministerial

(02:02):
warrants and so I wasn't surprised to see Seymour still
being a little bit David Seymour esk in front of
media and in the House, but not to a point
where I thought there was really any major problems.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Some very sad news this week of Parliament with the
sudden passing of Patti Mauri mp Ta Kutai Tash Kemp.
Some wonderful tributes though, Jason.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Very wonderful tributes, and it's those sorts of days where
you sort of see that politics isn't always adversarial. I
mean there's times that they can come together and they
can either work together and you see that actually a
lot behind the scenes down here, or they can pay
tribute to a fallen member of the House. And that's
exactly what happened. It kicked off with Palmer Portaka, who

(02:43):
spoke mostly in today omari before offering a few, well
many words of condolence to her family, to her farmer
and to the party. And then it was speakers from
all across the house, and Willie Jackson particularly spoke well.
I thought, a mix of tributes to Kemp as well

(03:04):
as some humor actually about how a lot of people
in Marty them especially in the Tamaki Makoto electorate, think
that they must all hate each other, but they're actually
really good friends behind the scenes. So yes, I'm really
touching and heartwarming tributes on that one.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So what happens next, Well, there's.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Going to be a by election in the Auckland Marty
seats of Tamaki Makoto. That seat was won by just
forty two votes by Kemp, which is the smallest margin
we saw across all electorates last election, and there was
some controversy behind that in the Manurewa Marai in terms
of the way that the voting station was operated there.

(03:44):
So it looks like there will be well, there is
going to be a by election. Now in terms of
who stands, you would think that it's very very likely,
if not almost certain at this point that Pini Hennare
from the Labor Party will step in for Labor and
he will run there. He's won that seat before and
he would probably be I would say the favorite. You've
got the likes of Madam Davison who's running that seat

(04:04):
as well, So whether not she runs that we don't
know at the stage. And in terms of Tea Party Marty,
that's an unknown as well. Some people have been speculation,
speculating John tama Hidi, who is the current party president,
who needs no introduction. People know who he is, but
we've had no word on that one yet, so we've
just got to kind of wait to see. You know,

(04:28):
it's not quite the right time.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yet, but it will.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
The election will be called soon, so candidates will be
named pretty soon as well, I would.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Say, Jason, I don't know if you saw Frano Sullivan's
piece in the Herald yesterday. She was just highlighting how
well this twelve day trip has gone for the Prime minister,
how he got his hussle on and he was in
fine form on the global stage. But she makes the
point that the Prime Minister needs to return home and
deal with declining poles here by engaging more with senior
business community and solving domestic issues.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Would you agree, Oh, I mean, he's a national prime minister.
He can't hang out with the business community enough. It
needs to be where he's always talking to And yes,
absolutely he should be doing that, and or not that'll
turn the polls around for him. I mean, at the moment,
it's fair to point out that the coalition government, you know,
it kind of switches between them being in power and

(05:16):
then being out of power, and so you know, the
Prime Minister will say one poll does not an election make,
but it surely would help quite a lot in terms
of those high level business meetings and meeting with people
across the country from those areas.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Jason Wolves, thank you very much for your time this morning.
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.