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July 15, 2025 11 mins

With Parliament sitting once again, Mark Mitchell and Ginny Andersen joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss some of the biggest stories of the week so far.  

They discussed the situation with David Seymour and his letter to the UN, financial audits for political parties, and Ginny’s 50th birthday. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Politics Wednesday, Mark Mitchell, Ginny Anderson with us. Hello are
you too, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
To Julie.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Happy birthday, Jenny.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Thank you, big five, thank you but scary a yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Have you got a celebration planned?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Well, I'm very lucky. I've got a mallad out of
Parliament tonight, so I'm going with my mum and my
dad and my husband and kids to local restaurant and
Patoni for a nice family dinner Roochie, very nice Indian
place for dinner. But then I'm having a bit of
a birthday besh with mate at the Patoni Rugby club
rooms over the weekends.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Nice. No kids allowed of that one.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
I suppose, oh my kids will make it in the air,
but probably it'd be more adult to that one. That
will be a couple of years and a band so
we have a bit of a dance, So a fun
night hopefully.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I've been told I've been told by somebody on the
text I'm not allowed to tell you that you look
awesome at fifty.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Jenny, Thank you very much, audience.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
They told me off because I said she is a
hot babe, and they said, don't tell Ginny that she
is a hot babe. That's not a nice thing to
do to a woman. But I feel like it is
Ginny that'll fill your car. I'm fine with that, totally
okay with that now, Mitch.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Have youde the PC brigades out by the way, By
the way, congratulations six months, you know that is we're celebrated.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Thank you, mate.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I thought Glenn has been a bit tough on it there,
but I just note that it seemed to stage. I
was an event last year where he was front row
for his daughter who was a very very talented musician,
and you couldn't see a prouder dad.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
So like likes to pretend.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Absolutely, yeah, and that first.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Six months is the hardest off and it's when that's
not getting sleep and that sort of stuff. So I
think that's a good milestone to get.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh Sam says. Oh Sam Sam says, is it a
thing to celebrate the fact that his dog Storm has
made it to sixteen weeks?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, it's absolutely sixteen weeks of Storm. And
by the way, let's not forget Barry's doing his peak
on this as well.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Barry's doing everything. When you were talking about it was
eugen he just said something about lack of sleep I
was like, no, I don't know anything about that. That's
that's all maternity leave over there. They sleep in a
different room or have been. I don't know what's going
on there. Listen, Mitch, anything down to Nelson Tasman to
check out how it's going down there.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, I have you. I've been down there three times.
I've been hit very hard. Obviously, we've all seen that
they just had a rolling wall of weather, even before
we sort of wedded to the orange and reds, that
had weather for weeks and it meant that the ground
just couldn't absorb water anymore, and so you know, messive
issues around you know, surface flooding. But also on top

(02:39):
of that heavy heavy rain and the river's breaking as well.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Is the slash a problem?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
So I have seen that there is definitely slash on
the ground. I mean, it's all relevant. I remember being
over in Gabriel, you know, Opra, the day after Gabriel
came through, and there's just the slash was just mind
boggling in terms of the amount of it that was
there and had to be dealt with. But there is definitely,
without a doubt, we got forestry, You've got a bit
of slash, So there are are some issues here around
cleaning up with a slash as well.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay, Ginny, do you reckon that? David Seymour really didn't
know that he wasn't supposed to be the one that
wrote to the UN.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Of course he knew that, he said, a pretty prime minister.
He's been in politics a long time, so I'm sure
he was aware of that. But yeah, it's interesting that
in the regulatory standards that's two things in a week
which him and Winston is barking on. So it'll be
interesting to see what the actual letter that gets officially
sent looks like and how is it different.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I should will be great. It'll be a great letter.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
What makes you so confident?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Match, We'll have a picture from David. I'm David, and
this is my picture of how you should deal with
Marty mt'ch.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Why are you so confident it's going to be.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
I've had my own personal experiences with the UN, and
so I'm probably not the best person to talk about that.
When I was overseas in the Middle East for ten years,
often the UN would call up and so we need
some help, And it's because they hadn't had the focus
on the idea is, for example, Mogadishu in their head
frustrated cargo there. So I'm not I'm not going to
get into the detail on it. I just think that

(04:09):
the Foreign Minister is definitely the right person to respond.
He will respond to deputy the Deputy Promise who has
got his own clear views on ited as well, and
I'm sure the leader will reflect all.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Of that Christopher Lax and Lisa Rain. The man though
he's the Prime minister, he should sort this out. These
guys are making him, are they.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Not at all? Not at all?

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Well, the opposite, you know, like on the government. If
a cabinet minister was you know, writing official blitters without
being signed off and agreed to by cabinet, it's pretty serious.
It seems like they get away with a whole lot
more than others would.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
I completely totally refute. I think that you've got three
outstanding leaders. You look at them, they know they're not
at all, not at all in this government is actually
I love with you, discoverment. This is the second second
go round for me and and we've got great relations
through all of the parties. We're all focused on what
we need to be doing and delivering for the country

(05:06):
and you've got three passionate, smart leaders that are working
together to do that.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Mitch, I think Ginny's got a point here. I mean,
we can all see why David. It doesn't take a
rocket scientist to figure out that he wrote the letter
because he wanted to be able to be seen to
be the one giving the una well deserved slap down.
And that's fine when you're in opposition, but when you're
actually in government it does start to look a little
bit like the thing is not well. I don't know,
it's a little ill disciplined, don't you think.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Well, I think that I'm not going to speculate at
all in terms of what David has written and what
he's putting forward. But obviously it was decided. I was
in their cabinet this week, but it was there was
a discussion. It was decided that Winston, rightly so was
the one that received the letter. He is the foreign
Minister and he'll respond to it, and it's as simple
as that.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Has he got a point, though, Ginny has David actually
got a point that they need to pull their head
and if they don't know what they're talking about, well.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
The point of fact, when I was in Cabnet, if
another minister had written a letter and someone else AIA
and sent it, there would be hell to pay for it.
There's a serious problem, Like there would be discipline happening
within Cabnet if that, and there would be talks worth
the PM or chief of staff because it's breaking discipline.
And it seems like there's a whole new set of
rules they just apply to Winston and David.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's very hard to have the same It's very hard
to have the same set of rules if you're dealing
with different parties. Ginny, are you going to win the
by election?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
We're aiming to. Yeah, we're doing everything.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
That's not that doesn't sound confident. Are you going to
win it?

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yes, we are. I mean, you don't want to be
too light cocky, you know, I don't think he is
like being like but you know, Penny is an excellent candidate.
He is He's had a lot of experience, he's a
strong campaigner, he's excellent speaking to a room full of people.
So look, I have a lot of confidence that he's
the right guy to do it, and it's going to

(06:50):
be really exciting.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
I mean, Mitch, I know you don't want to back
either of these horses because they're not your horse. But
what do you reckon? Who do you reckon is actually
going to take this out?

Speaker 2 (06:59):
I mean on motes with Penny and a being for
a while. So you know, I just think it will
be an interesting competition. I think, you know, at the moment,
the thing they should be focused on is getting their
audits and getting their fears of order. Well, yeah in
labor as well, labor as well, how do you focus

(07:21):
on there?

Speaker 3 (07:22):
I think we did get ours in, it's just the
auditor thing. The next thing which is coming.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, what happened to? What happened to?

Speaker 3 (07:30):
I understand that there's a new system in place, and
so that's helpings up a bit. But it's what they've
discussed it with with the Electoral Commission and these agreement
there to get it.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's not that flesh if you can't.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Think, is not I think Nationals also had some issues.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
You Mark, I think is pretty good. But if you
want to go in the country, you've got to go
in yourself first.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now, now, Jenny, it's your birthday, so I don't want
to start.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
I want to go to do I do I get
freeheads mark because it is true.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
I already let you get away with not answering the
u N question. Are you going to back up? You're
going to back up what National has done here? No,
say that a game. What are you going to back
up what you just said about National that they've had
some issues?

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah? I was going to find it, but I'm on
my phone, but I have had g p T.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
While you're talking to come out.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
You can't come out and say, hey, you got this
is not actually have the facts that you or No,
we're literal away with it.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, yeah it is.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
I'll give you the link later here there is also.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Okay, I will when you flick me the link, I
will make sure that I tell everybody who now wants
to know about this.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (08:51):
To you, Mitch, listen, what happened to the satellite because
Judith has been weird about it?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Did you know?

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah? I probably don't be as much as you. They
lost contact with What I do understand though, is that
it says she's been There has been benefits of the
country without doubt in terms of the amount of data
it's been collected, and there's also investment into Auckland university
to make sure that they've got their own control set
to now that's able to monitor their a satellite that
is up there. So there were definitely some upsides and

(09:19):
benefits to it. But yeah, I mean, all I know
is that they've lost contact with that satellit.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
What Jenny, Why is she being weird about it? Because
I didn't I wouldn't have even cared about this, but
then when she got weird about it, now I care
about it.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Well, what's even weird is when they ask christ for
lux and he said, labor did it like we're up
in space and kind of kicked it or something.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
That's a good idea we could see space.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah, that's.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yes, we funded it, Yes we funded it, but it
was launched in that under under this government. But it's
not an area where you need to blame people. I mean,
we know space is a high risk environment, but it's
really important that we can capture any lessons learned and
openly and honestly and say you know, okay, this went wrong,
let's not do it again. That's an area where we
want to do some more investigations. And so I don't

(10:03):
understand why why Judith, Because she's really excited about being
the Minister for Space and talking that out and this
is something that people want to know a bit more about.
So I don't understand why she's not responding.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
To Well, I think I think she has. She has responded.
I think the point that she made is that was
signed up. This was a labor satellite, so maybe it
started off somewhere to fix its audits and get it.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Before you go. So tell me so. So you weren't
in cabinet on Monday, Mitch, but did anybody tell you
about the massive showdown between Shane Jones and Tama Pautucker
over the lizards?

Speaker 3 (10:37):
The lizards? Yeah, I want to know, what's a guy.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Tell us not at all? Are they work really well together,
those guys? But yeah, absolutely, And I think it's landed
in a pretty good place, hasn't it.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Okay, Well, yeah, well there was a showdown anyway. Look,
I mean, look, I'll tell.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
You what change Change trying to fix the economic vandalism
that was done by the previous government. And that's a
hard job. But he's definitely getting there.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Well, the doc's doing a pretty good job of it. Okay. Anyway,
So Jenny, you're gonna go away you're gonna get me
the link about what National has done. Mitchig, go away,
call the other members of cabinet, find out what happened
at the showdown, and give me a tinkle and then
we can talk about it.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
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.
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