The Country 15/09/25: David Seymour talks to Jamie Mackay

We tell the Deputy PM and Act Party leader that we need to draft urgent legislation, and rush it through the House. No, not to get out of Paris or to recognise Palestine. But rather, to ban the box kick. This is a national crisis!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rightio. Let's kick off the show today with the ACT
Party leader, Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. David, Good afternoon,
Hey Jamie, how are you doing right. We've got a
national crisis on our hands. You need to draft urgent
legislation and rush it through the House. No, I'm not
talking about recognizing Palestine, David. I'm talking about banning the

(00:22):
box kick. This is a national crisis.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
You know, they don't have to win every time. I'm realistic,
but they seem to just give up. And I don't
really know what to make of it other than I
hope that there's a plan here and rather has some
idea of what's gone wrong and how to fix it,
because you know, I was there at the end thinking

(00:47):
if they just pick up a last gas try and
it's thirty six seventeen, then that's kind of bad. But okay,
but yeah forty three ten wow.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah. Look, honestly, I've loved rugby all my life, been
a rugby fan for sixty years, David. But it's become
a game of aerial ping pong with the box kicks.
If it's not that it's just running one off rucks,
I think we need to go back and look at rugby,
and I'm sounding like an old bugger here. Go back
and look at rugby the way it was played in

(01:19):
the mid nineties under John Hart Lorry Mains and then
or even the early two thousands when we had some
great tests, and try and make it a game where
fords largely stay in the fords and backs spread themselves
out and can beat another back one on one. I
just don't like the way our game's heading.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well. I tend to agree that I'm going to sort
of duck out of this one because I've not had
a good history with all changes myself. I came back
to play one last season after a few years of coaching,
and basically somewhere along the line, I'd missed a bit
about the ban on rucking and he couldn't work. Well.

(02:00):
It's getting penalo so frequently at that point, I think
when they got rid of rucking is when the game
really lost its way. If they could bring back that
and Christian Cullen, then I'll be back in the stadium
fair enough.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
And Christian Culling Cullen should I say, was a part
of those teams in those couple of eras I was
talking about there. Okay, what do you want to start
with Palestine or Paris? Let's carry on with Paris.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Choice.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Well it is, Jane Smith said on last week on
the show. It was an arms race. It was a
battle between you and Winston to see who came up
with the idea to get out of Paris first. Are
you competing on this policy or are you and Winston
arm and armed together like two all black forwards heading
into a ruck An agreement on this one?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, I think the matters that mostly keep you you occupied.
From my point of view, it's not about other politicians.
It's about the New Zealand economy and particularly the agricultural
sector of it. We have to change the way we
look at this. You know, when we had a labor
and if you want to talk about Winston, when we

(03:06):
had a labor government in New Zealand first government, it
was almost impossible to speak up against the stuff. You'd
just be beaten down. And yet now we're in a
totally different phase where you know what I've been saying
for quite some time that we need to take a
more balanced approach to climate otherwise we're going to lose

(03:27):
them both ways, shoot ourselves in both of peep and
that looks like putting the most efficient farmers out of business,
sending the business offshore to people who actually emit more.
What we need to do is form an alliance of
like minded people around the world. Talk about the Uruguayans,
some of the Southeast Asians and so look, you know,
if Paris doesn't change, we're going to leave it because

(03:49):
it's never acknowledged the basic realities that methane is a
different gas from CO two and other greenhouse gases. It
should be treated differently under any kind of poser. And
better still, food production should not be subjects to a
missions laws because fundamentally people need to.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Eat, absolutely, And wasn't there a clause in the Paris
Agreements saying that it shouldn't come at the cost of
food production? Are you and Winston going to really get
together and put the heat on national if you were
to form the next coalition government around a Paris agreement?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, look, I mean I can't speak for him, that's
up to him. All I just say is that the
best indication of future performance is past performance in the past.
You know, those guys gave us a labor government that
gave us the Paris commitments and the missions reductive. Whether

(04:48):
it was zero CARBONAC that we have now, I've been
consistent against that, even when it was just one of me.
So you know, I don't know where they're going to go,
but all I do know is that New Zealand is
a country that has one of the most entrepreneurial and
efficient communities in the world. Being a cultural sector, they

(05:09):
don't deserve to be kneecaps, and as politicians, we have
to start negotiating a better deal both here and at home.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay, should we be recognizhen actually one going about recognizing Palestine?
But should we have protesters walking over the bridge recognizing
because they couldn't because the wind was too strong. But
should Auckland, our biggest city, grind to a halt because
people want to protest and walk over the bridge?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, I wouldn't have said. So it is difficult because
the police have to say and politicians can't direct the police.
So as I understand it, what went down as the NZTA,
who actually own the state highway network and therefore the
Harbord Bridge said no. That meant that the police are

(05:55):
on charge on the day, in charge on the day. Sorry,
and if the police judge something to be in the
interests of public safety is with them. No politician can
start directing the police, because that's exactly the sort of
circumstances that we try to avoid in our democracy. So
that's really a question for the police minister. Could there

(06:18):
be a bit more guidance issued to them around when
how they balance public convenience with their judgment on public safety. Maybe,
But you know, I don't want to sound like a
copy out, but people want us to get rid of
police independence. That's not something that I'd be comfortable with
the government doing. If you don't like the call the

(06:40):
police made, then I guess that's something that you can
feedback to them. But I don't want to live in
a state where the government's telling the police what to
do from one day to the next.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
There you go. In the seventies we talked about banning
the bomb, David seem where you were probably too young
to remember that, but ban the box kick a lot
of feedback coming in support awarding that one.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, well, I'm not surprised, and you know, sounds like
exactly the sort of thing of Parliament should be getting
into in the national interest. But bear in mind black
Ferns had a big win, so you know, sometimes if
they don't like one results. The great thing about our
country is we have others. So go to the black Ferns.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, absolutely got on yet, David Seymour, There