July 8, 2025 • 10 mins
The Act Leader and Acting Prime Minister, “Deputy Dave”, joins us in the studio. We talk about the 2025 FMG Young Farmer of the Year, Hugh Jackson, and today’s OCR. Plus, how’s he getting on with Winston Peters? Will Act and NZ First cannibalise National’s rural vote? And how is Mark Cameron?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A bit of fat boys slim right here, right now
for a right winger who's in the studio co hosting
for the hour or the best part of it, act
party leader, but more importantly for today Acting Prime Minister
David Seymour, David Gooday, welcome to the studio again. Good Ay,
It's always good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And fat boy slim, that's the direction I'll be trying
to go if I drink this delicious makaisa you've given me.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Well, you came bearing gifts and you need to put
that what is it the pecuniary register or something for
the stuff you get for free when you're a politician.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
A Register of Pecuniary and other specified interest. But the
limit is five hundred dollars, and I know you're going
to actually option one of these.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm going to it at the Riversdale Farmers Tournament tomorrow
and I reckon I might get five hundred bucks. So
we'll see how we go on that one. Look, you
are the acting PM, and normally you would just sort
of wandering here and it would be pretty easy. Osi
you realize that you caused me some distress yesterday afternoon
when the Diplomatic Protection Squad wandered in here. They did
a sweep of the place, all because Luckxon's on holiday.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah. Well, when you called me to say that the
diplomatic protection squad were here, I actually assumed you are joking.
But then I was kind of relieved.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Have you had any grief today in Dunedin because this
is a bit of a labor.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Town, the complete opposite. We just saw a gran on
school holiday duty and she was saying, you must love
the cold because it's what it's like in Wellington. And
she said, this is the coldest day we've ever had.
I said, why do people tell me that every time
I come to the need.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, did you try and steal her off? Winston? If
she's a grand and she's wandering around here, she's probably
in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
First voter, Well, people liked to stereotype. But the thing
that the thing that marks out the ACT voters is
that they tend to be the smart ones.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And she looked like she might be an ACT voter. Okay,
so what we're going to do today on the show.
We're going to chat to Wayne Langford, shortly president of
Federated Farmers. More trouble for the Top of the South
Island Weatherwise Hunter McGregor our guy in Shanghai apart, well,
except for today he's in Rocksburgh, of all places. Shane
mcmanaway wire a rapper, farmer, former chief executive of All Flex, philanthropist.
(02:12):
Now here's a bloke, David. Because the government's not having
much luck building a hospital and the need and it
would be fair to say this guy built a hospital
along with his wife Lynnette, and the wire rapper just
got on with it, did it. We need to get
him down here.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Look, I tell you it's interesting. Some people say it's
sort of sad or a failing when someone builds a
hospital or provides something charitably. I don't see it as
a failing. I think it's a triumph of people's success
and generosity.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So good on them. I can't wait to talk to
the guy. Okay, let's have a look at some of
the subjects that we want to traverse today. If you want,
you are the acting Prime Minister. Christopher Luxeon's taken a
well earned break. Is it that? I know it's true
because I discussed it with him off here last week.
He literally has one week in the middle of the year,
five days to be more precise, and then he has
(03:02):
a break between Christmas and New Year. He's back at
his desk very early in January. There's something and I'm
not singling out him, but I think people like Margaret
Thatcher John Key was the same. They're surviving on hardly
any sleep and they work all the time. Is that
a good or a bad thing?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I think it's kind of a necessary thing. Like if
you want to get a job like that and be
the prime minister of a country, for example, there's a
whole lot of people that want to do it, and
then you say, okay, well, they have all kind of
good in different ways. What makes the difference. Often it's
just that metabolism and stamina and energy, so kind of
not a surprise personally. I think you do also need
(03:42):
to have a bit of thoughtfulness and know where you're going,
but that doesn't necessarily relate to how much sleep. I
think probably the gutsiest politician who had real conviction was
Margaret Thatcher. There's other people who are energize the buddies
that maybe don't have so much conviction, but hey, that's life.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
What about the political parties that are asleep at the wheel?
Could we name some.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Of those well, I mean, I'm very happy for their
party Maori to be asleep. And if the Greens go
to sleep, they might forget to persecute farmers and text
them when they try and pass on the farm to
the next generation. So look for those people. Farmer's book,
isn't it. Well, Look, I think we're at a point
(04:24):
in New Zealand where we've got to decide. We've had
a tough six years, no question. I think basically since
March fifteen. That's when stuff started getting hard, and then
we had COVID, then we had inflation, had interest rates.
Now we've got a recession. Now we've got a really
tough geopolitical world, and so you know, stuff's pretty tough.
So we've got to decide are we going to continue
(04:44):
this idea that our solutions lie in tackling some other
group of New Zealanders Like those guys have got money,
We're going to tax it off them. Those supermarkets, you know,
we're going to beat up on them, just like the
previous one did to landlords and farmers. I mean, or
we're going to say, look, you know, we've got a
few we need to stick together and solve them. I
think that basic question of are we zero some and
(05:06):
try and take from each other, or are we positive
some try and grow the whole thing. That's I think
that the key question coming out of this tough six years.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
The OCR announcement is going to be this afternoon. It
appears that they might stay where they are at three
point twenty five percent. They're going to do a David
Longe have a cup of tea. Surely the economy is
screaming out for another drop in the OCR.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, I tell you what I find. It really depends
who you talk to. I was just talking to some
shopkeepers in the Octagon. They said, actually, things are going
pretty well. Before that is at a plastic company that
does you know, infrastructure, three waters type stuff, and they said, look,
you know, since the financial years about to tick over
(05:56):
or it has just ticked over, where we're seeing the
orders were actually flat out. Then there's other people say, look,
i'm a retailer, I'm having zero days. Things are tough,
so we're on a sort of a bit of a wedge.
And what you've got to remember is that we don't
want inflation to come back. So that's all the stuff
they got to consider. I think what is important is
that whatever they do at two o'clock today, everybody that's
(06:20):
got a mortgage is now coming up to refix on
lower rates than they're currently on. I was talking to
Vittoria Short, who runs ASP, she's the boss there and
the other day and she said, look, we have passed
the peak. Every mortgage is now fixing lower. That means
we're freeing up cash. That means that people can start
employing again. That's actually got to be good. And thank
(06:41):
god for milk at nearly ten bucks and you know
sheep and beef prices where they are, because otherwise we'd
have a very different story.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour in the studio here in
Dunedin on Saturday night. You were in the cargo for
the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final. Hugh Jackson.
What an impressive young man he is.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, and I was kind of thinking about how to
talk about this because everything I want to say just
sounds so cliche. But I want to say it's the
best of New Zealand and it really is this time.
I mean, these are a whole lot of people all
under thirty, coming together, competing, competing hard with high stakes,
(07:21):
great prizes, huge support from the tables in the crowd,
and yet the level of friendliness in the competition is
uniquely rural. So I just love being there. And it
really reminded me that the rural community in New Zealand
may be the most free market community in the world.
(07:41):
There are a group of people that are totally fixated
on the market and innovating to meet the market, and
I just think it's a really really great crowd to
be part of.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I love the night. Yeah, wonderful collegiality. Is that a word.
It's a great word.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I mean, not common where I work, but it is.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well. I was going to say, talking about friendships or
the lack thereof, how are you and Winston getting on?
Is there a wee bit of acting PM envy there?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
No? Oh, I certainly haven't had that from him. I
know that he's overseas, I think, and I should know,
but I think he's in Malaysia, so you know, he's
doing his job and he loves going overseas. He loves
meeting people, and by all accounts, they love meeting him.
So I think that's actually a win.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Win will act in New Zealand first jointly cannibalize National's
rural vote because you're both after it.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, I actually turned that around and ask where will
rural voters choose to trust people with their vote? So,
rather than making it about the parties cannibalizing each other,
let's just start with the people. And what I know
is that people want to see resource management reform done
so that they don't spend more time getting permission than
(08:56):
actually doing stuff. They want to see health and safety
getting sorted so that rather than having to pay a
consultant a fortune because work safe just scares the Bejesus
out of people but doesn't actually help them. They want
to see that sorted. And they want to see fiscal
and economic conditions that are responsible so they're not paying
high interest rates getting crowded out by government spending. Now,
(09:18):
you know, I think ACT can tell a very good story.
Simon Court on the RABA, Brook and Balden on health
and safety and labor law, the work that I'm doing
on regulation and government spending. I think we've got a
good story to tell about all those things.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I'll tell you one guy who I'm impressed by in
the ACT Caucus, and that is your ag spokesperson Mark Cameron,
and he's got a real battle on his hands. He's
got serious, serious kidney disease. But there's a bloke sort
of straight off the farm, but he says it as
it is.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thing about Mark Cameron is kidneys might only be giving
five percent, but that guy gives two hundred. He's been
going through a lot of difficult time, laid up in
hospital and you know, getting catheteris inserted and himself to
use the dialysis machine. And yet he's still on the
ball and he's still participating day to day even from
his hospital bed. And if there's one thing I'm proud
(10:09):
of with actors, that we've brought people who probably never
thought they'd get elected, but we've brought probably the most
authentic group of people. Because he was number eight on
the list when we had one MP. Now he's there
and he's made a go of it, and I'm really
proud of Mark, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
David Seymour in the studio
A bit of fat boys slim right here, right now
for a right winger who's in the studio co hosting
for the hour or the best part of it, act
party leader, but more importantly for today Acting Prime Minister
David Seymour, David Gooday, welcome to the studio again. Good Ay,
It's always good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And fat boy slim, that's the direction I'll be trying
to go if I drink this delicious makaisa you've given me.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Well, you came bearing gifts and you need to put
that what is it the pecuniary register or something for
the stuff you get for free when you're a politician.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
A Register of Pecuniary and other specified interest. But the
limit is five hundred dollars, and I know you're going
to actually option one of these.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm going to it at the Riversdale Farmers Tournament tomorrow
and I reckon I might get five hundred bucks. So
we'll see how we go on that one. Look, you
are the acting PM, and normally you would just sort
of wandering here and it would be pretty easy. Osi
you realize that you caused me some distress yesterday afternoon
when the Diplomatic Protection Squad wandered in here. They did
a sweep of the place, all because Luckxon's on holiday.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah. Well, when you called me to say that the
diplomatic protection squad were here, I actually assumed you are joking.
But then I was kind of relieved.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Have you had any grief today in Dunedin because this
is a bit of a labor.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Town, the complete opposite. We just saw a gran on
school holiday duty and she was saying, you must love
the cold because it's what it's like in Wellington. And
she said, this is the coldest day we've ever had.
I said, why do people tell me that every time
I come to the need.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, did you try and steal her off? Winston? If
she's a grand and she's wandering around here, she's probably
in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
First voter, Well, people liked to stereotype. But the thing
that the thing that marks out the ACT voters is
that they tend to be the smart ones.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And she looked like she might be an ACT voter. Okay,
so what we're going to do today on the show.
We're going to chat to Wayne Langford, shortly president of
Federated Farmers. More trouble for the Top of the South
Island Weatherwise Hunter McGregor our guy in Shanghai apart, well,
except for today he's in Rocksburgh, of all places. Shane
mcmanaway wire a rapper, farmer, former chief executive of All Flex, philanthropist.
(02:12):
Now here's a bloke, David. Because the government's not having
much luck building a hospital and the need and it
would be fair to say this guy built a hospital
along with his wife Lynnette, and the wire rapper just
got on with it, did it. We need to get
him down here.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Look, I tell you it's interesting. Some people say it's
sort of sad or a failing when someone builds a
hospital or provides something charitably. I don't see it as
a failing. I think it's a triumph of people's success
and generosity.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So good on them. I can't wait to talk to
the guy. Okay, let's have a look at some of
the subjects that we want to traverse today. If you want,
you are the acting Prime Minister. Christopher Luxeon's taken a
well earned break. Is it that? I know it's true
because I discussed it with him off here last week.
He literally has one week in the middle of the year,
five days to be more precise, and then he has
(03:02):
a break between Christmas and New Year. He's back at
his desk very early in January. There's something and I'm
not singling out him, but I think people like Margaret
Thatcher John Key was the same. They're surviving on hardly
any sleep and they work all the time. Is that
a good or a bad thing?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I think it's kind of a necessary thing. Like if
you want to get a job like that and be
the prime minister of a country, for example, there's a
whole lot of people that want to do it, and
then you say, okay, well, they have all kind of
good in different ways. What makes the difference. Often it's
just that metabolism and stamina and energy, so kind of
not a surprise personally. I think you do also need
(03:42):
to have a bit of thoughtfulness and know where you're going,
but that doesn't necessarily relate to how much sleep. I
think probably the gutsiest politician who had real conviction was
Margaret Thatcher. There's other people who are energize the buddies
that maybe don't have so much conviction, but hey, that's life.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
What about the political parties that are asleep at the wheel?
Could we name some.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Of those well, I mean, I'm very happy for their
party Maori to be asleep. And if the Greens go
to sleep, they might forget to persecute farmers and text
them when they try and pass on the farm to
the next generation. So look for those people. Farmer's book,
isn't it. Well, Look, I think we're at a point
(04:24):
in New Zealand where we've got to decide. We've had
a tough six years, no question. I think basically since
March fifteen. That's when stuff started getting hard, and then
we had COVID, then we had inflation, had interest rates.
Now we've got a recession. Now we've got a really
tough geopolitical world, and so you know, stuff's pretty tough.
So we've got to decide are we going to continue
(04:44):
this idea that our solutions lie in tackling some other
group of New Zealanders Like those guys have got money,
We're going to tax it off them. Those supermarkets, you know,
we're going to beat up on them, just like the
previous one did to landlords and farmers. I mean, or
we're going to say, look, you know, we've got a
few we need to stick together and solve them. I
think that basic question of are we zero some and
(05:06):
try and take from each other, or are we positive
some try and grow the whole thing. That's I think
that the key question coming out of this tough six years.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
The OCR announcement is going to be this afternoon. It
appears that they might stay where they are at three
point twenty five percent. They're going to do a David
Longe have a cup of tea. Surely the economy is
screaming out for another drop in the OCR.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, I tell you what I find. It really depends
who you talk to. I was just talking to some
shopkeepers in the Octagon. They said, actually, things are going
pretty well. Before that is at a plastic company that
does you know, infrastructure, three waters type stuff, and they said, look,
you know, since the financial years about to tick over
(05:56):
or it has just ticked over, where we're seeing the
orders were actually flat out. Then there's other people say, look,
i'm a retailer, I'm having zero days. Things are tough,
so we're on a sort of a bit of a wedge.
And what you've got to remember is that we don't
want inflation to come back. So that's all the stuff
they got to consider. I think what is important is
that whatever they do at two o'clock today, everybody that's
(06:20):
got a mortgage is now coming up to refix on
lower rates than they're currently on. I was talking to
Vittoria Short, who runs ASP, she's the boss there and
the other day and she said, look, we have passed
the peak. Every mortgage is now fixing lower. That means
we're freeing up cash. That means that people can start
employing again. That's actually got to be good. And thank
(06:41):
god for milk at nearly ten bucks and you know
sheep and beef prices where they are, because otherwise we'd
have a very different story.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour in the studio here in
Dunedin on Saturday night. You were in the cargo for
the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final. Hugh Jackson.
What an impressive young man he is.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, and I was kind of thinking about how to
talk about this because everything I want to say just
sounds so cliche. But I want to say it's the
best of New Zealand and it really is this time.
I mean, these are a whole lot of people all
under thirty, coming together, competing, competing hard with high stakes,
(07:21):
great prizes, huge support from the tables in the crowd,
and yet the level of friendliness in the competition is
uniquely rural. So I just love being there. And it
really reminded me that the rural community in New Zealand
may be the most free market community in the world.
(07:41):
There are a group of people that are totally fixated
on the market and innovating to meet the market, and
I just think it's a really really great crowd to
be part of.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I love the night. Yeah, wonderful collegiality. Is that a word.
It's a great word.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I mean, not common where I work, but it is.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well. I was going to say, talking about friendships or
the lack thereof, how are you and Winston getting on?
Is there a wee bit of acting PM envy there?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
No? Oh, I certainly haven't had that from him. I
know that he's overseas, I think, and I should know,
but I think he's in Malaysia, so you know, he's
doing his job and he loves going overseas. He loves
meeting people, and by all accounts, they love meeting him.
So I think that's actually a win.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Win will act in New Zealand first jointly cannibalize National's
rural vote because you're both after it.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, I actually turned that around and ask where will
rural voters choose to trust people with their vote? So,
rather than making it about the parties cannibalizing each other,
let's just start with the people. And what I know
is that people want to see resource management reform done
so that they don't spend more time getting permission than
(08:56):
actually doing stuff. They want to see health and safety
getting sorted so that rather than having to pay a
consultant a fortune because work safe just scares the Bejesus
out of people but doesn't actually help them. They want
to see that sorted. And they want to see fiscal
and economic conditions that are responsible so they're not paying
high interest rates getting crowded out by government spending. Now,
(09:18):
you know, I think ACT can tell a very good story.
Simon Court on the RABA, Brook and Balden on health
and safety and labor law, the work that I'm doing
on regulation and government spending. I think we've got a
good story to tell about all those things.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I'll tell you one guy who I'm impressed by in
the ACT Caucus, and that is your ag spokesperson Mark Cameron,
and he's got a real battle on his hands. He's
got serious, serious kidney disease. But there's a bloke sort
of straight off the farm, but he says it as
it is.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thing about Mark Cameron is kidneys might only be giving
five percent, but that guy gives two hundred. He's been
going through a lot of difficult time, laid up in
hospital and you know, getting catheteris inserted and himself to
use the dialysis machine. And yet he's still on the
ball and he's still participating day to day even from
his hospital bed. And if there's one thing I'm proud
(10:09):
of with actors, that we've brought people who probably never
thought they'd get elected, but we've brought probably the most
authentic group of people. Because he was number eight on
the list when we had one MP. Now he's there
and he's made a go of it, and I'm really
proud of Mark, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
David Seymour in the studio
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