Comment: Paul Henry says it took just a week from the point he told David Seymour he wanted to be an MP to being locked in as an Act candidate. The speed of that decision appears to have set the tone of the Henry/Seymour relationship.
Within a day of the announcement the Act leader and the broadcaster had made another major decision: Henry will go on a nationwide tour as soon as possible.
The tour’s name is a perfect amalgam of Henry’s and Seymour’s talents. Show Bizz meets political shrewdness.
Paul Henry Unlocked: Truth Telling for a Better Tomorrow.
Images of The Beatles’ 1967 film and album ‘Magical Mystery Tour’, where a busload of eccentric passengers take a psychedelic journey through the English countryside, spring to mind. Step this way – it will be fun.
“It is all about piercing the gloom the country has been under and how it has been dealing with it.” Seymour told Newsroom while he was out door knocking in the Tāmaki electorate with Act candidate James Christmas.
“Since March 15, this country has been going through one catastrophe after another. Just when things seem to be getting better another train comes through the tunnel. The current ceasefire in the Middle East that is train within a train.
“Paul is perfect for the time. A lot of people will know him only as a shock jock but there is a lot more to him.”
Henry’s nationwide tour will draw crowds. It’s not hard to imagine ‘standing room only’ in some of the smaller centres bound to be on the itinerary. Free entertainment is a rarity these days.
As a broadcaster, Henry was a ratings winner. The audience numbers for TVNZ’s breakfast show were never the same after Henry quit following a series of jokes that were judged to be in poor taste.
At TV3 he grew the ratings in the breakfast slot to the point of being a serious challenger before he got sick of very early mornings.
TV3 also played a roundabout role in the relationship between Seymour and Henry.
Henry’s daughter Bella worked for TV3 first as a make-up artist and then as a runner (person who looks after guests about to be interviewed) on her father’s programme. Guests and runners often spend time chatting before interviews and Bella Henry and Seymour struck up a friendship. When the Act leader wanted Henry’s number he knew who to call.
While humour, often politically incorrect humour, was a big part of Henry’s on-air persona, he applied a journalistic approach to his work. He maintained a deep knowledge of news and current affairs by constantly monitoring all the major news outlets right up until he went to sleep in the evenings. While he describes himself as a “big-picture guy” he was always across the detail – particularly if he was interviewing a politician.
Seymour is already having to fend off claims that Henry isn’t a team player and will go ‘rogue’ at some point. Those who’ve worked with him in television will tell you that’s not true. Henry is a team player. He gets frustrated when he thinks team members aren’t working hard enough or fail to live up to their promise or reputations.
Act will need to be mindful of this if they want to get the best out of him. Surrounding Henry with competent people will pay dividends.
Henry, along with candidates like James Christmas, is part of an Act refresh, pushed on the party by its plateau in the polls. Act is stuck between 6 and 8 percent and appears to have lost some of the vigour it had in the early days of the Luxon Government.
Seymour (gently) pushes back on this suggestion. “It is a continuous process and I am constantly bringing new people on board. They say surround yourself with smart people and I think it is one of my skills – finding people who are smarter than me.”
The attraction between Henry and Act has been building for some time.
It probably started in 2024 when Henry gave the keynote address at an Act rally in Auckland. The speech has since been viewed 231,000 times on Act’s You Tube channel.
In a highly entertaining 32 minutes, Henry lamented the state of New Zealand.
“I think this country is deeply in the shit and I think the options to leverage us out of the shit are becoming increasingly limited largely because the people willing and capable of doing it are few … I believe Act could be the last cab on the rank heading in the last direction. Yeah (shouted). So, let’s sort this shit out.”
Henry, of course, laid into Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori. National – “his political home for decades” – fared much the same.
“They tread too lightly, paralysed by the fear they may alienate one or two voters.”
He used an almost identical description of National at the announcement of his candidacy this week.
Back in the 2024 speech, Henry also attacked “wokeness” saying we had turned into a population of hand wringers and the Auckland Council for failing to “hoover the streets of the anti-social”.
The rapturous applause he received that day would’ve convinced Henry he had found his tribe.
Failing a complete meltdown in Act’s vote, which seems unlikely, Henry will be a Member of Parliament before the year ends. Can he increase the party’s overall vote? The magical mystery tour is a start but Seymour and Henry will be busy thinking up more ideas to leverage the high profile Henry brings to the drab political landscape
