August 17, 2025 • 10 mins
The Act Party leader talks beer, lefty haters, collateral damage, Dad Dancing and twerking, Grant Robertson's denial over Covid spend up, bike helmets and fiddling while Rome burns when there are bigger fish to fry.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Picking off the country today is Act Party leader and
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. I was in two minds, David,
whether to invite you onto the show today, because you
put up a post on your Facebook page and some
of your left wing haters are getting stuck into me
over you doing a Makaiser taste test. You realize that
that bear is almost past expiry date. Now, how do
(00:23):
you put up with all that vitriol?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, first of all, it was worth it for the Mikaisa,
so thank you very much. The second of all, you
just have to think about basic statistics. Probably about zero
point one percent of New Zealand and nasty warps little people.
The sad thing is that one hundred percent of those
tiny minority are commenting on Facebook. And once you recognize
(00:51):
that they don't remotely reflect normal life. Once upon a
time they would have all been accommodated at their Majesty's
pleasure place like King Seat. Now they're out there commenting
on Facebook and that's just the way it is.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Just to clear up this, because I have suffered a
bit of collateral damage here, David Seymour, the Mackaiser bear
is our country bear. It's a brand we put out
for clients and correspondents at Christmas time to the show.
So you know Damian O'Connor, Joe Luxton, James Shaw when
he was a Green, all recipients on the other side
of the house, Winston Luxon even just Cinder back in
(01:30):
the day. So there you go where it's a truly
a political bear. I just want to clear that up, David.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, see Lucksoy doesn't even drink and you gave him some,
so you clearly are equal opportunities in sending out yrbruskies.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Just talking about collateral damage. Did Luxon and Chippy get
some of that dancing at the Indian Festival of whatever?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It was?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
The dad dancing? It's truly appalling. It almost made your
twerking look good.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Almost well. The difficulty is to be very careful of
being susceptible to flattery. And I heard Luxom this morning
saying that he was told he had rhythm as a
small child, and he's carried that with him. Often people
will say kind things to small children that nonetheless aren't true,
and you should reevaluate that afterwards. I had a similar
(02:18):
experience when I got asked to go on Dancing with
the Stars. I actually hired a professional to do it
in our lesson and say, look, do you think I
could dance? And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
you could. And she wasn't being overly kind, she was
just being honest.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
It was true. I could off, I just didn't.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You got to be very careful of being susceptible to
flattery or guilding the lily.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I watched with interest Jack Thames interview on Q and
A with Grant Robertson. He is literally in denial in
my opinion anyhow, over the COVID spend up.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
He's in denial.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And I don't mean the river in Egypt.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I know.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
That's the problem with Robbo is.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That they sort of seemed to go into a weird
trance where the value of a dollar was massively inflated away.
Suddenly a billion wasn't much money anymore, and in total
he added one hundred and fifteen billion to the net death.
I guess when you're that far in it must be
(03:22):
quite difficult to step back and have a sober look
at it, because it's all pretty ugly.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So what do you do? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Summed up by Michael Laws, the former National MP who
once said politicians are the most sincere profession because we
fooled ourselves first. And I suspect that's exactly what ROBO's done.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Can you understand why him and or Robertson and Jacinto
wouldn't turn up to this COVID inquiry. They're not in
public office now yet Chippy and Ascheverril are standing for
public office. And as I said to Chippy on the
show last week, I think he should have just fronted
it up, taken it on the chin and got out
of there.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
To start, contrast to the COVID era when they're very
happy to invade our living rooms at one pm every day,
go on for twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Before we could get access to.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The daily numbers, which you remember that period in New
Zealand history when the numbers really mattered.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Are the cases going up or down? How many are
at the border and all the rest?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Now you know today and start contrasts, they say, well,
we'd just like to give the information in private, and
you know, we don't need to appear publicly. I wish
they'd taken that attitude during COVID. Just send us the
numbers we paid for them. As taxpayers anyway and shut up.
If they'd been consistent, I'd be very happy. But the
(04:42):
truth is that they're not being consistent and they're not
showing that they operate in the public interest. If they did,
then they would want open hearings because then the people
can look at what questions were us were they answered?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Were there are other questions that we probably think they
should have asked. None of those questions will ever be known.
And I yes, we've just got to settle for what
we get out of it. But it's a real shame,
it's a real disappointment from them.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Now are you doing Winston Peters yourself? He refused to
put on the high visvest and the helmet last week
to go into the new rail tunnel. You're banging on
now about bike helmets getting rid of them, surely, David Seymour,
We've got bigger fish to fry. It's a bit like
Nikola with Buttergate. You guys are burning or a fiddling
(05:31):
while Rome burns.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Should I say, well, let me give you another metaphor.
It's possible to walk and chew gum. This government can
have more than one iron in the fire at any
given time. If you look at the red tape tip
line that the Ministry for Regulation set up that had
over eight hundred people come through just in a few
(05:52):
months with red tape that they're frustrated about a lot
of it. We don't do anything about because you know,
it's not really a regulatory problem. There's a reason for
the rule or whatever. The government's already fixing the problem
a different way, so we don't need to get on
it right now. But a lot of things we do fix.
The garden shed thing has given huge relief up and
down the country, allowing people to get access to money
(06:16):
from well without doing probate more rapidly. There's lots of
things like that. On the bike helmets, which you asked about. Look,
you know, some of the great cycling nations of the
world take the nevolence they don't require by helmets, and
there's an argument out there that if you go and
tell everyone's cycling's very, very dangerous and you've got to
(06:37):
buy this thing and you've got to wear it all
the time, you'll actually get less people cycling, and that's
bad for people's health and it may not be as
good for your safety as people are led to believe.
So that's an argument that's out there. Put it up
to the Ministry for regulation. They said, actually, really think
I'm balance that the law does make sense, so we
(06:57):
won't take that one any further. But I don't think that.
I think it's a problem when we beat up on
people just for asking basic questions.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Talking about Winston Peters, he's been a bit of a
roadblock when it comes to the foreign buyers band. Are
we going to see a decision on that shortly? Nikola
Willis is indicating we will.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, you know, there's people that want to go out
and anticipate what the cabinet might decide. I think to
be a team player, you've got to avoid doing that
and just stick with cabinet makes the decision and then
the person responsible announces it.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
That's how I think you should play a game.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I you know, as you know, things strongly in favor
of people from overseas being able to send them money.
Here I look in the rural context, there's a lot
of people who are aging who say, I want to
get a good price for my farm. I owned it,
I work for it. Why should I be restrict it
to selling it to people? With the new Zealand passport.
I think that's a perfectly fair perspective. That's why the
Act Party is always favored being open to overseas investment.
(07:58):
Will we get some move on the housing, Let's hope so.
But you know it's not really not really up to me.
I'm actually the Minister responsible for the Overseas Investment Act,
and you know, let's just be loyal to our colleagues
and when we've got something collectively to announce, then you
know we'll come out and do it.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Quite happy to have foreign buyers coming and plant the
country and pine trees. David Seymour Well, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Say I'm happy to, but I just make the point
that everybody, We'll put it another way. My most popular
ever policy was other people should take the bus, And
my second most popular policy is your neighbors can't sell
to an overseas buyer, but you can. It's one of
those old stories. While we're trading metaphors this chat. You know,
(08:46):
God make me chaste.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
But just not yet.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And I would just say, look, you know, you've got
to stand up for people's right to do what they
want on their own property while also being careful about
the environmental laws around the packs of pines on neighbors,
and there are problems with soil acidification and so on.
But once you've got your laws and your framework right,
it shouldn't matter so much what color of the person's
(09:11):
passport is. The objectives have good laws for the land
regardless of what color the people are.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And just on a lighter note to finish, the Opportunity
Party is seeking a new leader, but they're doing it
in a public ad on a website seek now. That
doesn't need to happen obviously in dictatorships like ACT in
New Zealand. First David Seymour.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh, well, look the thing is, we actually don't need
to advertise. We've got a whole lot of people. Forty
six candidates standing for at the local government level, eleven
members of parliament, and a whole lot more people will
be standing for us from the parliamentary elections last next year.
So ACT just operates and recruits by word of mouth,
(09:54):
and personally, I've always said if someone can do the
job better than me, I've be very very proud to
sit home and vote for that party that believes in
cutting Texas, cutting waste, cutting red tape and making this
a free society. We're all equal, you know. I certainly
don't need the hussle. If someone else is willing to
(10:15):
do it, then I'd support them.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
You're happy to be the MP for Tyron or where
have I heard that before? Hey on the show tomorrow
by the way, David Seymour Damian O'Connor, former Labor agg
minister these days trade spokesperson and he got some makaisa
for Christmas as well. Thanks for landing me in it.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
He no, no, it's a real pleasure and I hope
you have a hope you have a great day.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And I thought you were going to ask me about.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
The Maori ward elections and telling the priests to get
back to God and stop meddling in politics.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
But anyway, I haven't we got one with.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You haven't got time for that particular controversy. Thanks for
your t
Picking off the country today is Act Party leader and
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. I was in two minds, David,
whether to invite you onto the show today, because you
put up a post on your Facebook page and some
of your left wing haters are getting stuck into me
over you doing a Makaiser taste test. You realize that
that bear is almost past expiry date. Now, how do
(00:23):
you put up with all that vitriol?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, first of all, it was worth it for the Mikaisa,
so thank you very much. The second of all, you
just have to think about basic statistics. Probably about zero
point one percent of New Zealand and nasty warps little people.
The sad thing is that one hundred percent of those
tiny minority are commenting on Facebook. And once you recognize
(00:51):
that they don't remotely reflect normal life. Once upon a
time they would have all been accommodated at their Majesty's
pleasure place like King Seat. Now they're out there commenting
on Facebook and that's just the way it is.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Just to clear up this, because I have suffered a
bit of collateral damage here, David Seymour, the Mackaiser bear
is our country bear. It's a brand we put out
for clients and correspondents at Christmas time to the show.
So you know Damian O'Connor, Joe Luxton, James Shaw when
he was a Green, all recipients on the other side
of the house, Winston Luxon even just Cinder back in
(01:30):
the day. So there you go where it's a truly
a political bear. I just want to clear that up, David.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, see Lucksoy doesn't even drink and you gave him some,
so you clearly are equal opportunities in sending out yrbruskies.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Just talking about collateral damage. Did Luxon and Chippy get
some of that dancing at the Indian Festival of whatever?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It was?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
The dad dancing? It's truly appalling. It almost made your
twerking look good.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Almost well. The difficulty is to be very careful of
being susceptible to flattery. And I heard Luxom this morning
saying that he was told he had rhythm as a
small child, and he's carried that with him. Often people
will say kind things to small children that nonetheless aren't true,
and you should reevaluate that afterwards. I had a similar
(02:18):
experience when I got asked to go on Dancing with
the Stars. I actually hired a professional to do it
in our lesson and say, look, do you think I
could dance? And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
you could. And she wasn't being overly kind, she was
just being honest.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
It was true. I could off, I just didn't.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You got to be very careful of being susceptible to
flattery or guilding the lily.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I watched with interest Jack Thames interview on Q and
A with Grant Robertson. He is literally in denial in
my opinion anyhow, over the COVID spend up.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
He's in denial.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And I don't mean the river in Egypt.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I know.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
That's the problem with Robbo is.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That they sort of seemed to go into a weird
trance where the value of a dollar was massively inflated away.
Suddenly a billion wasn't much money anymore, and in total
he added one hundred and fifteen billion to the net death.
I guess when you're that far in it must be
(03:22):
quite difficult to step back and have a sober look
at it, because it's all pretty ugly.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So what do you do? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Summed up by Michael Laws, the former National MP who
once said politicians are the most sincere profession because we
fooled ourselves first. And I suspect that's exactly what ROBO's done.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Can you understand why him and or Robertson and Jacinto
wouldn't turn up to this COVID inquiry. They're not in
public office now yet Chippy and Ascheverril are standing for
public office. And as I said to Chippy on the
show last week, I think he should have just fronted
it up, taken it on the chin and got out
of there.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
To start, contrast to the COVID era when they're very
happy to invade our living rooms at one pm every day,
go on for twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Before we could get access to.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The daily numbers, which you remember that period in New
Zealand history when the numbers really mattered.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Are the cases going up or down? How many are
at the border and all the rest?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Now you know today and start contrasts, they say, well,
we'd just like to give the information in private, and
you know, we don't need to appear publicly. I wish
they'd taken that attitude during COVID. Just send us the
numbers we paid for them. As taxpayers anyway and shut up.
If they'd been consistent, I'd be very happy. But the
(04:42):
truth is that they're not being consistent and they're not
showing that they operate in the public interest. If they did,
then they would want open hearings because then the people
can look at what questions were us were they answered?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Were there are other questions that we probably think they
should have asked. None of those questions will ever be known.
And I yes, we've just got to settle for what
we get out of it. But it's a real shame,
it's a real disappointment from them.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Now are you doing Winston Peters yourself? He refused to
put on the high visvest and the helmet last week
to go into the new rail tunnel. You're banging on
now about bike helmets getting rid of them, surely, David Seymour,
We've got bigger fish to fry. It's a bit like
Nikola with Buttergate. You guys are burning or a fiddling
(05:31):
while Rome burns.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Should I say, well, let me give you another metaphor.
It's possible to walk and chew gum. This government can
have more than one iron in the fire at any
given time. If you look at the red tape tip
line that the Ministry for Regulation set up that had
over eight hundred people come through just in a few
(05:52):
months with red tape that they're frustrated about a lot
of it. We don't do anything about because you know,
it's not really a regulatory problem. There's a reason for
the rule or whatever. The government's already fixing the problem
a different way, so we don't need to get on
it right now. But a lot of things we do fix.
The garden shed thing has given huge relief up and
down the country, allowing people to get access to money
(06:16):
from well without doing probate more rapidly. There's lots of
things like that. On the bike helmets, which you asked about. Look,
you know, some of the great cycling nations of the
world take the nevolence they don't require by helmets, and
there's an argument out there that if you go and
tell everyone's cycling's very, very dangerous and you've got to
(06:37):
buy this thing and you've got to wear it all
the time, you'll actually get less people cycling, and that's
bad for people's health and it may not be as
good for your safety as people are led to believe.
So that's an argument that's out there. Put it up
to the Ministry for regulation. They said, actually, really think
I'm balance that the law does make sense, so we
(06:57):
won't take that one any further. But I don't think that.
I think it's a problem when we beat up on
people just for asking basic questions.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Talking about Winston Peters, he's been a bit of a
roadblock when it comes to the foreign buyers band. Are
we going to see a decision on that shortly? Nikola
Willis is indicating we will.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, you know, there's people that want to go out
and anticipate what the cabinet might decide. I think to
be a team player, you've got to avoid doing that
and just stick with cabinet makes the decision and then
the person responsible announces it.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
That's how I think you should play a game.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I you know, as you know, things strongly in favor
of people from overseas being able to send them money.
Here I look in the rural context, there's a lot
of people who are aging who say, I want to
get a good price for my farm. I owned it,
I work for it. Why should I be restrict it
to selling it to people? With the new Zealand passport.
I think that's a perfectly fair perspective. That's why the
Act Party is always favored being open to overseas investment.
(07:58):
Will we get some move on the housing, Let's hope so.
But you know it's not really not really up to me.
I'm actually the Minister responsible for the Overseas Investment Act,
and you know, let's just be loyal to our colleagues
and when we've got something collectively to announce, then you
know we'll come out and do it.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Quite happy to have foreign buyers coming and plant the
country and pine trees. David Seymour Well, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Say I'm happy to, but I just make the point
that everybody, We'll put it another way. My most popular
ever policy was other people should take the bus, And
my second most popular policy is your neighbors can't sell
to an overseas buyer, but you can. It's one of
those old stories. While we're trading metaphors this chat. You know,
(08:46):
God make me chaste.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
But just not yet.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And I would just say, look, you know, you've got
to stand up for people's right to do what they
want on their own property while also being careful about
the environmental laws around the packs of pines on neighbors,
and there are problems with soil acidification and so on.
But once you've got your laws and your framework right,
it shouldn't matter so much what color of the person's
(09:11):
passport is. The objectives have good laws for the land
regardless of what color the people are.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And just on a lighter note to finish, the Opportunity
Party is seeking a new leader, but they're doing it
in a public ad on a website seek now. That
doesn't need to happen obviously in dictatorships like ACT in
New Zealand. First David Seymour.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh, well, look the thing is, we actually don't need
to advertise. We've got a whole lot of people. Forty
six candidates standing for at the local government level, eleven
members of parliament, and a whole lot more people will
be standing for us from the parliamentary elections last next year.
So ACT just operates and recruits by word of mouth,
(09:54):
and personally, I've always said if someone can do the
job better than me, I've be very very proud to
sit home and vote for that party that believes in
cutting Texas, cutting waste, cutting red tape and making this
a free society. We're all equal, you know. I certainly
don't need the hussle. If someone else is willing to
(10:15):
do it, then I'd support them.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
You're happy to be the MP for Tyron or where
have I heard that before? Hey on the show tomorrow
by the way, David Seymour Damian O'Connor, former Labor agg
minister these days trade spokesperson and he got some makaisa
for Christmas as well. Thanks for landing me in it.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
He no, no, it's a real pleasure and I hope
you have a hope you have a great day.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And I thought you were going to ask me about.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
The Maori ward elections and telling the priests to get
back to God and stop meddling in politics.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
But anyway, I haven't we got one with.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You haven't got time for that particular controversy. Thanks for
your t
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