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Speaker 1: At party had there an you'll get together over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: They set a goal for the next election of fifteen percent,

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Speaker 1: which would be a major boost from the eight point

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Speaker 1: six percent to of last year. Of course, David Seymore's

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Speaker 1: with us. Very good morning. What are the lessons you're

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Speaker 1: learning when you talk about this fifteen percent? What are

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Speaker 1: the lessons you're learning in MMP history the smaller party

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Speaker 1: in government vanishes. What are you learning that's going to

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Speaker 1: prevent you from doing that and getting fifteen.

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Speaker 2: You've got to find a balance of being a constructive partner,

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Speaker 2: and I think from our opponent's point of view, this

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Speaker 2: coalition is dangerously united, but also showed that you can

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Speaker 2: make a real difference. So I look at the thirty

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Speaker 2: six points in the last quarterly action plan that our

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Speaker 2: government has, Eighteen of those came from ACT, and I

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Speaker 2: think we are showing that a we can be constructive

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Speaker 2: and collegial, but also we have by far the most

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Speaker 2: reformist government coming in in several decades. It's also the

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Speaker 2: first time ACTS being at the cabinet table, and I'd

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Speaker 2: like to persuade people those two are connected.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so last week was a good week for you

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Speaker 1: so that e reviews, the holidays, the sick leave reviews.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon people connected that directly to ACT or

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Speaker 1: it was just a thing from the government.

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Speaker 2: I think over time people see a vibe. We have

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Speaker 2: a government that is slashing red tape. We've got a

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Speaker 2: government that is making savings. We've got a government that's

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Speaker 2: committed to the idea that each New Zealander has the

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Speaker 2: same inherent human dignity. We're not dividing ourselves by identity politics.

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Speaker 2: In each of those cases there's an ACTS signature attached

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Speaker 2: to it. But also in each of those cases, I

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Speaker 2: think it's fair to say that the government has not

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Speaker 2: gone as far as ACTS would go. And yes, it

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Speaker 2: has gone further than it would without ACT.

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Speaker 1: Well, I only we've talked about it since the budget.

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Speaker 1: But the Farmac, of which you're in charge of, the

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Speaker 1: canter drugs that weren't delivered national seems to have taken

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Speaker 1: the heat on that. But that then falls back on

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Speaker 1: you to a degree as well. I mean there's the

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Speaker 1: frustration on the some of the things you might want

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Speaker 1: it to have done but haven't.

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Speaker 2: But if you look at Farmac, I mean, first of all,

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Speaker 2: we took a hospital pass. We had to put nearly

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Speaker 2: two billion dollars in just to keep it going because

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Speaker 2: that money had not been budgeted in the later parties

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Speaker 2: four years projection as that we inherit it. Second of all,

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Speaker 2: we're now doing everything we can to accommodate that national

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Speaker 2: party commitment and deliver more cancer drugs. That's been actively

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Speaker 2: worked on almost as we speak. So we will deliver

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Speaker 2: a lot more drugs, a lot more cancer drugs. However,

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Speaker 2: it's fair to say that you're trying to bring together

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Speaker 2: two models, one the farmac model that I'm responsible for,

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Speaker 2: and to the commitment to fund some non farmac drugs

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Speaker 2: that had been recommended by the Cancer Control Agency. I

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Speaker 2: actually think as we speak, we're doing a pretty good

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Speaker 2: job of integrating those two, and there'll be an announcement

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Speaker 2: I suspect sooner rather than later that will show we

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Speaker 2: can make them work together. I say that's an example

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Speaker 2: of being a constructive partner and government and ultimately delivering

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Speaker 2: better policy than we might offer. Did we not have

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Speaker 2: a coalition?

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Speaker 1: I know you spoke to us yesterday. I suspect it's beltwegh.

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Speaker 1: But you've got some resignations, You've got some people that

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Speaker 1: didn't light the way the campaign went. They say, you've

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Speaker 1: got a culture is shoot, do you No?

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Speaker 2: We don't. I mean, I look at the way that

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Speaker 2: actors operated, the caucus culture we've created, the staff retention

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Speaker 2: rates we have, the staff engagement has been measured by

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Speaker 2: the Parliamentary Services ACTS team having the best engagement every election.

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Speaker 2: People come, they have great expectations and then many of

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Speaker 2: them stay, but some decide that politics isn't quite what

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Speaker 2: they thought it was cracked up to be and move on.

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Speaker 2: And that's actually quite natural the way I look at it,

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Speaker 2: Actors grow in one thousand percent in the last five years.

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Speaker 2: A lot of new people have come along, and the

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Speaker 2: party's invested significantly in getting an expert reviewer who interviewed

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Speaker 2: sixty one different pace people made I think thirty six recommendations,

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Speaker 2: although I don't have that number right now, And actually

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Speaker 2: it's a sign that actors going from strength to strength.

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Speaker 2: But no, they'll always be journalists to do their best

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Speaker 2: to find the disaffected and amplify their voices. I don't

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Speaker 2: think it reflects a party that just had sold out

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Speaker 2: five hundred plus rally yesterday with people very excited about

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Speaker 2: the contribution we can make to New Zealand and the

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Speaker 2: way we can, I think restore the spirit of New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: which is an entrepreneurial culture of migrants from all over

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Speaker 2: the world here to make a difference in their own lives.

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Speaker 1: While I've got you and you're the most senior member

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Speaker 1: of government will have on the program this morning. Should

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Speaker 1: the government this week launch an investigation into Tamarty Maray

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Speaker 1: and what may or may not have gone on in

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Speaker 1: the Mariah?

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Speaker 2: It may well do, but the decision over whether we

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Speaker 2: do is sensitive. I actually think that Matthew Horton summed

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Speaker 2: it up pretty well. What needs to be done is

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Speaker 2: justice according to the law in a proper way. That

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Speaker 2: is already happening with several departments. We don't want to

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Speaker 2: see a government investigation that is portrayed as political because frankly,

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Speaker 2: that is what some people would like to see right now.

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Speaker 2: And we're actually here to show that our values are

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Speaker 2: doing things by the rule of law, by the book,

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Speaker 2: with fairness and equity for everybody are the right values.

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Speaker 2: So the question of should we very possibly, but we're

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Speaker 2: going to be balancing some pretty finely balanced interests here

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Speaker 2: to make sure that we get justice, and that also

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Speaker 2: justices seem to.

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Speaker 1: Be done all right, David appreciate time. David seymore the

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Speaker 1: act party leader this morning.

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Speaker 2: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio