Act leader David Seymour serves ice creams to Afghan interpreters who were protesting outside Parliament, after his mention of the Mr. Whippy business model for vaccinations and testing. Video / Mark Mitchell
After a week of licking his National counterpart, Act leader David Seymour decided to start the week with a licking of a more conventional kind by inviting Mr Whippy to Parliament.
Seymour invited Clare Bennett, who runs a lower North Island Mr Whippy franchise, to Parliament to highlight the difficulties faced by small businesses under Covid-19 restrictions.
So on Monday morning, Bennett drove Gertrude, the Whippy truck, to Molesworth St (her other trucks - Murphy, Henrietta, Bart and Tintin - stayed home) to serve Act MPs ice cream (other parties' MPs were invited but chose to stay away).
But political stunts never go quite to plan and this was no exception; after spending a bit too long discoursing with Bennett, Seymour's ice cream began to melt and he was forced to break what is, by his own admission, the "number one rule of politics", which is not to get photographed eating ice cream.
The stunt then took another unexpected turn when Seymour invited a dozen or so Afghan interpreters to share an ice cream.
Act leader David Seymour with former Afghan interpreters after inviting them to join him at the Mr Whippy ice cream van. Photo / Mark Mitchell
TThe interpreters had come to New Zealand years ago, having assisted our forces there during the Afghan conflict. They had been camped outside Parliament all morning, hoping for a meeting with Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi where they want to discuss fears their families could be being persecuted under Afghanistan's new Taliban regime.
Seymour said he was hoping to bring the case of the Afghan interpreters to the public through Parliament.
"These people have siblings whose houses are being ransacked, they say children are being killed in Afghanistan and they're being left in the immigration queue with everyone else who is frustrated - well the immigration queue does need to be expedited and shortened and we should start with people whose families are in grave danger," Seymour said.
Former Afghan interpreters during their protest at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
While the interpreters did not get their meeting with Faafoi, Seymour was able to serve them ice creams. Most decided to take one, and the two demonstrations merged, becoming potentially the first pro-business, anti-Taliban, ice cream centred one.
The electronic thrum of Mr Whippy's iconic synth Greensleeves wafting across Parliament's lawn might not have been the most evocative backdrop to an anti-Taliban immigration protest, but the interpreters' spokesperson Raza Khadim enjoyed the ice cream anyway.
"It was amazing, thanks to David - ice cream always freshens up things," he said.
Bennett told Seymour alert level changes and uncertainty were causing them to lose big events.
Act leader David Seymour serving ice creams to former Afghan interpreters. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"We've lost quite a few big events - the same thing happened last year, within 48 hours we lost six months' worth of bookings," Bennett said.
"We're now getting cancellations for September, October and people in November are waiting," she said.
Bennett said that with big events gone, the company was forced to "return to our Whippy roots".
"We do street runs and smaller bookings," she said.
It wasn't only ice cream Seymour was celebrating - Monday was the seventh anniversary of the election that saw Seymour head to Parliament in 2014.
Seymour saw some symbolism in his ice cream choice - a double choc-dipped flake.
Pointing to his double scoops, Seymour said they showed "exponential growth in Act from one to two and then two to four and now we've got ten - it's a mathematical formula," he said.
