David Seymour: ACT leader says the Government's not cutting as many costs as his party would

The ACT leader has promised less spending and fewer public servants.

It comes after numerous redundancies in the public sector, following calls for efficient spending as the coalition's budgets were being delivered.

David Seymour says the Government is not cutting costs as much as ACT would.

"We said that we wanted to reduce the number of public servants back to pre-Labour levels, and we also said that we wanted to reduce spending by about 8 or 9 billion each year."

Seymour's reiterating the comments made yesterday when reacting to a further OCR cut.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Finance min Ister. Spending is coming under further pressure,

(00:03):
this time from within cabinet. David Seymour has now called
out National and Nikola Willis for not cutting more public servants.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I believe that there's still too many people and we're
not necessarily delivering better services than in twenty seventeen.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
And also for not cutting enough spending all together.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
This government is not saving money as aggressively as the
ACT Party would.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
So let's have a chat to him.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
David.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello, hey, Heather, So is it National that's not allowing
you to cut the public servants you want to cut?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Well? I never point fingers at people. I mean, we're
part of the government, we work together. But I think
anyone who is familiar with the angle that the different
parties took in the ACT Party left a receipt which
was our alternative budget, where we said that we wanted
to reduce the number of public servants back to pre

(00:53):
labor levels, and we also said that we wanted to
reduce spending by about eight or nine billion each year.
The government hasn't done that. I think we can point
to quite a few areas where ACT ministers and myself
have helped the taxpayers save some money, so we can
say the government's gone further than it might have without Acts,

(01:15):
but not as far as.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
We would Okay, So if you guys are the ones
wanting to cut that many and it's not happening, we'll
blame New Zealand first and national. What are the reasons
that they are giving you for not cutting those public servants?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, first of all, I don't think it's as simple
as three parties sitting down. It is a whole process
of different ministers saying I need to do this, and
therefore I don't want to cut that, or I need
extra money to do this. So it's kind of a
big washing machine that all comes together. But the overall
vibe of it is that we're doing the amounts of
spending reduction that we are. I'm still happy to be

(01:51):
there for this very simple reason that I know the
other guys would be much much worse. But it's definitely
true that Acts General pushes for less spend England. Perhaps
others would.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Have you see, David, I mean, look, I have sympathy
for the fact that obviously when you guys are in
the room, you guys know what's going on there. But
I'm not going to let you get away with this
as a voter, right because I'm disappointed when I look
at the government and I see that you guys haven't
cut the promised number of public servants. I'm going to
blame New Zealand First National and you aren't.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
I yeah, I can understand. I can understand that. But
I think if I was a voter, I'd be saying, Okay,
how do I keep this government? Because my number one
priority is you know, the honorable Cooe Swarbrick, Minister for
anything sound, But.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Why do I want to keep this government? David? I
mean if at the moment it feels but it feels
like you guys are assuming that we want to keep
this government. This coment government is now profoundly disappointing. I mean,
it's as good as a red government, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Well, First of all, I think we can say that
there are quite a number of things that we have
done better. Second of all, if you are concerned about
what sort of government you have instead of them, and
some one who says, look, I think that I want
to see less spending. I want to see fewer public servants,
want to see faster reductions then you know, I think

(03:08):
it's pretty easy to see that without revealing the confidence
of any discussions, which I won't do. You know who
went in there saying we need to cut a lot
more and a lot faster, and that was us. Do
you know what?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
There is a credible path if you think about this,
credible path to victory for labor if they roll chippy
giving themselves the option to go with New Zealand first.
And I just wonder if you guys are overestimating or
underestimating the public's appetite for a change to that that
might not be that bad when we get to next
year and we're as disappointed in you guys as we are.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Well, I think people can make that argument if they want,
But I also just say to you this, there's never
been a government that has done as much as fast
to reform from the right, certainly not in two generations.
You think about three warders, the Maori Health Authority replacing
the RMA, doing services based on need not race, you know,

(04:00):
passing a regulatory standards bill that fundamentally renegotiates the relationship
between the state and regulating your property. That's why it's
been controversial on the left then you go through the
labor law changes. I mean, it really does add up.
It's pretty significant, and I think sometimes when you're on
a long walk it pays to just stop, look back,

(04:21):
and sometimes you're surprised at how far you've come. That
is what would be getting put at risk. And I
think speaking is act. We can claim to have done
our bit and probably a bit more in making it happen.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Look, if I know anything, it would be that you're
probably as frustrated as any of us at the spending
that's going on. Do you think that you have any
chance in the next eighteen months, which actually about a
year now, of getting the rest of the government to
tighten the belt.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, I do, and again I don't want to deny
that we actually made some progress. And when you look
at school lunches, have the cost of that pay equity saved,
you know, twelve billion or over four years or three
billion dollars a year my different savings exercises at each
budget five hundred million a year ongoing saved last year

(05:11):
saved one hundred and fifteen million ongoing at the budget
that we've just had. So you know, it's not that
it's all small and we're not doing anything. We're doing stuff,
probably just not quite as much as some of us
would like.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
David, thanks very much. David Semore, Deputy Prime Minister, also
at party leading.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
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Speaker 2 (05:33):
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