September 3, 2025 • 6 mins
David Seymour says he's opposing planning changes in Auckland in his role as local MP, rather than his role as Act Party Leader.
Seymour's opposing a move to allow more intensification near transport corridors.
The Deputy Prime Minister and MP for Epsom told a public meeting that supporters must impress on Housing Minister Chris Bishop that the plan is not necessary.
Seymour told Mike Hosking he's representing the views of his Epsom electorate constituents.
He says his job is to ensure Epsom, Mt Eden, Newmarket, Parnell, and Remuera have their interests advocated for.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hard to overstate, as have tried to just before the news,
the sort of angst in Auckland at the moment over
this new intensification plan or draft plan or whatever you
want to call it. Without boring the rest of the country.
The Housing Minister wants the potential for two million more homes.
People may not want to vote in the local body elections,
but you don't want to mess with their backyard. Boy,
you get them exercise. Then local MP David Seymour plans
(00:20):
to lobby the council around an adequate infrastructure and poor
developments and he's with us. Very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning mate, So do you speak to.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Us this morning in your capacity as actively the Deputy
Prime Minister or MP for EPSOM.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Primarily is MP for EPSOM, and that capacity, my job
is to ensure that the residents I represent in EPSOM,
Mount Eden, Newmarket, Parnell and Remuera suburbs have their interests
advocated for within the political process under the law, so
that everyone understands what's going on and that their views
(00:55):
are heard. And that's simply a job that I see
as my first and most important because while I represent
a lot of people on behalf of acts. And while
I honored to have some jobs in the governments of
New Zealand, it's the people in the EPSOM electorate who
gave me the ticket to attend.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What would your assessment of the level of Bankston Auckland
be And other Auckland MPs as active on this as you.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Are, I'm aware that other Auckland MP's are getting feedback,
in some cases voluminous feedback on this issue. Frankly, I
don't believe it's as strong as it could be because
of the way that the Auckland Council has behaved. In
order to find the maps of how the zoning will change,
whether your neighborhood will be zoned for up to fifty
(01:43):
meter towers or just have its zoning changed from one
existing Auckland zone to another. In order to find those maps,
you actually have to go into the section of the
Auckland Council website where they keep the minutes of the meetings.
Then you've got to go to these ual Planning Committees minutes.
Then you've got to plow through that to download these images.
(02:04):
Now I talk to people at the Herald who say
that the most read story on their page last week
was about this topic. But if you go to the
Auckland Council website, the thing that people are most interested
in as one of the most hidden things. So I
suspect interesting as people get more information, they will take
an interest in it. My challenge to Auckland Council is
(02:27):
rate payers paid for these maps. You've been preparing them
since April and then you release them after Parliament voted
on the legislation which you clearly knew was coming, but
chose to prepare a plan that you used for your
purposes but not to inform public debate about. And I
think that is Shane fall. They should put it on
(02:47):
the front page of the website this morning.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Which is the really interesting thing for a person like
me is trying to sort of wait and stand in
the middle of all of this is this is the
interpace between local government and central government. It is central
government who wants it. It's Chris Bishop who's pushed for this,
and local government doesn't necessarily want this particular way. But
they didn't want three houses of three stories on a
six hundred square meet property and never the twain shall
meet in That is the angst, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well? That's right. I mean not to go through all
the history, and I'm conscious that there are non Auckland
listeners on the shows. I apologize to them. But look, basically,
you know, the Medium Density Residential Standard was a deal
between the Labor government of the day and supported by
the National Party in opposition that would have said you
can build three three story houses basically every section in Auckland.
(03:35):
I oppose that from the get go. I think that
was mad. For example, we saw shortly after that agreement
flooding and real damage and destruction across Auckland. All of
those places and floodplains were deemed to have three three
story houses on them. So we've defeated the MDRS. I'm
pleased we've done that. The government has made a massive
improvement on it. However, the plan that has been produced
(03:59):
by Auckland counts, as Chris Bishop noted in his column
this morning, that requires almost no greenfield development, all intensification.
It requires half of Parnell to have fifty meter buildings. Now,
I just make the point that you know to only
two years ago that we had a building fall into
a sinkhole because a one hundred and twenty year old
(04:20):
brick sewer underneath Parnell imploded and everything fell down into it,
and we had two years of fixing that up. So
the idea you're going to intensify that rate there doesn't
make sense. So we've got an improvement, but now we've
got an obligation I think to make sure that we
really go through this from an Auckland perspective and make
(04:40):
sure that the plan actually makes sense. And in that
Chris Bishop has the ultimate say. And I'm also rarely
determined that someone I consider a very good friend and
a very impressive politician doesn't get demonized for his role
as some people are trying to do in Or and
that would be wrong. And I actually agree with Chris
(05:02):
about one other thing. If we want this country to work,
then the next generation must believe that if you do
all the right stuff, listen to your teacher, study, grow up,
get a job, save your money carefully, then you will
have a place of your own. As soon as you
take away the ladders of opportunity to a property owning democracy,
(05:23):
you get a generation who doesn't believe in that concept,
and you have big trouble. So we do need to
make it easier to build a home. But what we
absolutely cannot do is dis locate planning and infrastructure provision,
which will lead to a total disaster. So it's a
bit of water to go into this bridge, but I
believe we'll get to a better place.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, I hope you're right. Nice to talk to you,
appreciate it. David Syamall, let's call him the MP for EPSOM.
On that particular one I think we mentioned a week ago,
the boss went along to his first ever public meeting
in a big church hall. In the church hall was
because he suddenly he bought his house and he's looking
next door and he sees the plan and the plan
has got the multi story building next door, and he
suddenly freaks out. And this is how this whole thing goes.
(06:03):
So he goes along to the public meeting system and
his life place is packed. So there's David's right. This's
more where that came from. For more from the Mic
Asking Breakfast, listen live to news Talks it'd be from
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Hard to overstate, as have tried to just before the news,
the sort of angst in Auckland at the moment over
this new intensification plan or draft plan or whatever you
want to call it. Without boring the rest of the country.
The Housing Minister wants the potential for two million more homes.
People may not want to vote in the local body elections,
but you don't want to mess with their backyard. Boy,
you get them exercise. Then local MP David Seymour plans
(00:20):
to lobby the council around an adequate infrastructure and poor
developments and he's with us. Very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning mate, So do you speak to.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Us this morning in your capacity as actively the Deputy
Prime Minister or MP for EPSOM.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Primarily is MP for EPSOM, and that capacity, my job
is to ensure that the residents I represent in EPSOM,
Mount Eden, Newmarket, Parnell and Remuera suburbs have their interests
advocated for within the political process under the law, so
that everyone understands what's going on and that their views
(00:55):
are heard. And that's simply a job that I see
as my first and most important because while I represent
a lot of people on behalf of acts. And while
I honored to have some jobs in the governments of
New Zealand, it's the people in the EPSOM electorate who
gave me the ticket to attend.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What would your assessment of the level of Bankston Auckland
be And other Auckland MPs as active on this as you.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Are, I'm aware that other Auckland MP's are getting feedback,
in some cases voluminous feedback on this issue. Frankly, I
don't believe it's as strong as it could be because
of the way that the Auckland Council has behaved. In
order to find the maps of how the zoning will change,
whether your neighborhood will be zoned for up to fifty
(01:43):
meter towers or just have its zoning changed from one
existing Auckland zone to another. In order to find those maps,
you actually have to go into the section of the
Auckland Council website where they keep the minutes of the meetings.
Then you've got to go to these ual Planning Committees minutes.
Then you've got to plow through that to download these images.
(02:04):
Now I talk to people at the Herald who say
that the most read story on their page last week
was about this topic. But if you go to the
Auckland Council website, the thing that people are most interested
in as one of the most hidden things. So I
suspect interesting as people get more information, they will take
an interest in it. My challenge to Auckland Council is
(02:27):
rate payers paid for these maps. You've been preparing them
since April and then you release them after Parliament voted
on the legislation which you clearly knew was coming, but
chose to prepare a plan that you used for your
purposes but not to inform public debate about. And I
think that is Shane fall. They should put it on
(02:47):
the front page of the website this morning.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Which is the really interesting thing for a person like
me is trying to sort of wait and stand in
the middle of all of this is this is the
interpace between local government and central government. It is central
government who wants it. It's Chris Bishop who's pushed for this,
and local government doesn't necessarily want this particular way. But
they didn't want three houses of three stories on a
six hundred square meet property and never the twain shall
meet in That is the angst, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well? That's right. I mean not to go through all
the history, and I'm conscious that there are non Auckland
listeners on the shows. I apologize to them. But look, basically,
you know, the Medium Density Residential Standard was a deal
between the Labor government of the day and supported by
the National Party in opposition that would have said you
can build three three story houses basically every section in Auckland.
(03:35):
I oppose that from the get go. I think that
was mad. For example, we saw shortly after that agreement
flooding and real damage and destruction across Auckland. All of
those places and floodplains were deemed to have three three
story houses on them. So we've defeated the MDRS. I'm
pleased we've done that. The government has made a massive
improvement on it. However, the plan that has been produced
(03:59):
by Auckland counts, as Chris Bishop noted in his column
this morning, that requires almost no greenfield development, all intensification.
It requires half of Parnell to have fifty meter buildings. Now,
I just make the point that you know to only
two years ago that we had a building fall into
a sinkhole because a one hundred and twenty year old
(04:20):
brick sewer underneath Parnell imploded and everything fell down into it,
and we had two years of fixing that up. So
the idea you're going to intensify that rate there doesn't
make sense. So we've got an improvement, but now we've
got an obligation I think to make sure that we
really go through this from an Auckland perspective and make
(04:40):
sure that the plan actually makes sense. And in that
Chris Bishop has the ultimate say. And I'm also rarely
determined that someone I consider a very good friend and
a very impressive politician doesn't get demonized for his role
as some people are trying to do in Or and
that would be wrong. And I actually agree with Chris
(05:02):
about one other thing. If we want this country to work,
then the next generation must believe that if you do
all the right stuff, listen to your teacher, study, grow up,
get a job, save your money carefully, then you will
have a place of your own. As soon as you
take away the ladders of opportunity to a property owning democracy,
(05:23):
you get a generation who doesn't believe in that concept,
and you have big trouble. So we do need to
make it easier to build a home. But what we
absolutely cannot do is dis locate planning and infrastructure provision,
which will lead to a total disaster. So it's a
bit of water to go into this bridge, but I
believe we'll get to a better place.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, I hope you're right. Nice to talk to you,
appreciate it. David Syamall, let's call him the MP for EPSOM.
On that particular one I think we mentioned a week ago,
the boss went along to his first ever public meeting
in a big church hall. In the church hall was
because he suddenly he bought his house and he's looking
next door and he sees the plan and the plan
has got the multi story building next door, and he
suddenly freaks out. And this is how this whole thing goes.
(06:03):
So he goes along to the public meeting system and
his life place is packed. So there's David's right. This's
more where that came from. For more from the Mic
Asking Breakfast, listen live to news Talks it'd be from
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.