Boycott over: David Seymour returns to Morning Report

The Act leader, who quit going on RNZ’s flagship show in 2020 after feeling ‘belittled’ and ‘abused’ by ‘snarky’ hosts, returned this morning to talk about National and Labour’s supermarket policies.

David Seymour’s boycott of RNZ’s flagship show Morning Report is apparently over after the Act leader appeared on the state broadcaster’s programme this morning.

Seymour revealed to The Spinoff in 2021 that he was avoiding the show because he felt staff were rude and selective in what they covered. 

“After the umpteenth time that I went on their show out of a feeling of public duty and was belittled and abused with all their snarkiness, I just thought, I don’t need this,” he said.

He stuck with the boycott even after becoming deputy prime minister in 2025.

This morning he visited RNZ’s Auckland studio for a live interview with Morning Report host Ingrid Hipkiss and discussed the supermarket policies released by National and Labour.

No mention was made on air about Seymour’s return to the show after years of rejecting invitations to appear.

Seymour told The Spinoff he was back because of staff changes at RNZ.

“I stopped appearing in 2020 due to unprofessional and frankly tiresome behaviour both on and off air. Everyone involved then has either moved on or is being moved on soon, so it’s a different organisation these days, and who doesn’t love a second chance?”

He said he enjoyed his return to Morning Report. “I thought it was a good interview and I hope to be on again soon.”

Although Seymour had boycotted Morning Report, he had continued to appear on other RNZ shows.

As an RNZ spokesperson tells it, the end of the boycott was straight forward. “Morning Report requested an interview with David Seymour for this morning’s show on the topic of the supermarket break-up policy and he accepted.”

Seymour is not the only politician to refuse to appear on specific shows. Prime minister Christopher Luxon dropped his weekly slot on TVNZ’s Breakfast in April, shortly after Tova O’Brien joined the show as a presenter. Luxon had been criticised for his performance when speaking with her, and at one point referred to himself as CEO rather prime minister. 

After ending his regular slot, he said he would continue to appear on the show on a case-by-case basis, but has never appeared again.

Luxon hasn’t given an interview to Jack Tame on TVNZ’s political show Q+A since December 2024.

Winston Peters hasn’t appeared on the publicly-funded Q+A for the entire term.

In 2021, then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern pulled out of her weekly interview slot with Mike Hosking on ZB. Hosking accused her of “running for the hills”.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau also ended her ZB slot, a few months before announcing her retirement from politics.