Dunedin man Hamish Walker, who was selected to contest the National stronghold only a fortnight ago, praised his party’s record in government when he spoke at a Grey Power candidates’ meeting in Frankton yesterday.
However, he told the crowd of 60 he would listen to his constituents and "fight for you" in Wellington.
Most people he spoke to in the resort favoured some kind of tourist levy, and a bed tax made "a lot of sense".
New Zealand First candidate Mark Patterson, of Lawrence, said he became disillusioned with National after getting involved in meat industry politics.
"When we went to Wellington, we got apathy and we got platitudes."
The Government was ‘‘managerial and poll-driven’’, and had become overly focused on Auckland.
The Greens’ Rachael Goldsmith, of Invercargill, told the meeting she was "devastated" when former co-leader Metiria Turei resigned last month over scrutiny spurred by her admission of historical benefit fraud.
"I don’t judge anyone on what they did 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago."
However, the party could have managed the affair better, Ms Goldsmith said.
Labour’s Cherie Chapman, of Bluff, and Ban 1080 Party candidate Brian Adams, of Haast, also attended the Frankton election meeting.
He thought his new home was "gorgeous".
"It reminds me of the foothills of California. We used to drive up to Tahoe, which was dry with snowcapped mountains."
It is the technology of connectivity, which Mr Cotter has worked around for decades, which allows innovative research and international collaboration to occur in a small Central Otago town.
"Gone are the days of the scientists twiddling away in their lab with a notebook and making discoveries by themselves. Science these days is pretty much borderless."
