Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: David Seymour On The Queen's Memorial Public Holiday

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

ACT party leader David Seymour chats about his views on the new public holiday in New Zealand!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a bonus podcast from Jono and Ben on The Hits. It's going to be a holiday. New Zealand's going to have a holiday to pay tribute to the Queen. It's happening on the 26th of September, Monday. A lot of debate around the holiday and not surprising this guy's got some opinions. Yeah, we're going to talk to David Seymour very shortly. We're just saying, what are you going to do with your day off? Now, Ben, you're saying it's stressing you out. It's going to put you a day behind in the week and you're going to just probably be working anyway.

So you're not going to be mourning. No no no you're right whereas i'm going to enjoy the holiday it's probably bad for me i'll probably end up eating more onion dip maybe slip a few more heineken i don't feel we need this holiday i don't feel the country needs this holiday as much as i'm not saying taking nothing away from the queen and i know we're part of the commonwealth and we need to pay some specs but I don't think she would want this. You don't think so? No. Well I do.

I think we all need a bit of a breather. So 0800 the hits. This is what we're going to do. You can call us text 4487 as well. The public holiday for the Queen's

day of mourning. Are you going to be mourning or are you going to be having a holiday? Do we need it? Do we not? David Seymour from the ACT Party

is not happy. Good morning. Hey guys. How are you legends doing this morning? I see you've got our script to read for the introduction. I love it. Now, David Seymour, the public holiday, you're not happy with it, mate? No, I'm not, because, look, we all got our own views,

and I know some people really love the Queen, and I personally admire the way she carried herself and served for 70 years. But, you know, if people really care the Queen, and I personally admire the way she carried herself and served for 70 years. But if people really care about it, there's so many ways they could get out, support a charity, reflect, send their own message, lay flowers at the memorial, whatever. But to make everybody else take a day off, it does a few things. For businesses, it's $450 million they have to pay in extra wages. Business under a lot of pressure, cost of living crisis out there, and they've just done an extra holiday, so they've had one extra this year already. And then you've got people in

schools. You know, I've had a couple of principals contact me. They say, look, kids are behind. Last thing, a lot of problems with kids not coming to school. Prime Minister just told them to take a day off in the week before the September holidays. Doesn't really help. And even people in hospitals, you know, there's something in the news this morning. Someone was saying to me yesterday, you know, this is just going to be a real bugger because if all of our nurses actually take the day off, that just puts us behind catching up on operations post-COVID. Well, the Queen was always, you know, there was always that feeling in the UK,

it was like the keep calm and carry on. You know, this almost goes against, you know, carrying on. You know, a holiday kind of goes against that whole feeling. Yeah, I reckon. Look, Parliament's taking three days off. I mean, the government doesn't want us to, because the best thing about Parliament is asking questions. So no questions this week.

So, you know, the PM, Labour have been pretty quick to jump on that. I'd rather be down there carrying on, you know, maybe PM, Labour have been pretty quick to jump on that. I'd rather be down there carrying on, you know, maybe not keeping calm, but certainly carrying on. Yeah, you're right. The British, traditionally, they show no emotion. Well, she kept going. She got retired years ago. She's 96 still

working. She was literally still swearing in Prime Ministers the day before she died. So, you're dead right, Ben. She would have wanted us to carry on. She'd have a holiday. I got a theory she was just carrying on until Boris Johnson retired. So you're dead right, Ben. She would have wanted us to carry on. She would have a holiday. I got a theory she was just carrying on until Boris Johnson retired. She's like, right, the country's safe, I can go now. And you probably do have to, well, you do have to take the opposite stance to the government at times. Are there times, are there days where you're like, oh, man,

I kind of agree with them here, but I've got to come up with some sort of angle? Oh, no, no. I mean, we often do say that they've done the right thing. I mean, I look at what Jacinda Ardern did around the abortion law reform. It was absolutely the right thing, and we absolutely said it was. Yesterday, we said, look, it's absolutely the right thing to get rid of these traffic lights. What are you going to be doing with your public holiday, David Seymour?

Oh, just working. Working hard for the people, obviously. Always out there for the people, eh? David Seymour, thanks for your time. Cheers. There we go. So this is the question 0800 that hits. Are you going to be mourning on the day of mourning?

I'll be enjoying the mourning. The mourning's sleeping. Ben Boyce is getting stressed out. He's got to work. Do we need this public holiday or not?