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Sean Beamish is hoping it will be third time lucky for Act New Zealand in Waitaki.
The Lake Hāwea resident is running as the party’s candidate in the electorate again in this year’s general
election.
He told the Oamaru Mail he was once again seeking the party vote rather than the seat for himself.
“I’m there to promote the party vote and promote Act policy.
“I’ve been sufficiently impressed with how they’ve been able to influence over the last three years in government and I think I’d like that influence to grow.”
Mr Beamish credited Act with starting conversations New Zealand “needed to have” during its time as a coalition partner in government.
“Particularly around equality for all before the law and getting away from the identity politics that certainly began to sneak in under the last Labour administration.”
If elected, the party would open up opportunities for New Zealanders to “get things done” by cutting red tape, he said.
“We need to unlock New Zealand’s potential by reducing the amount of general government, both national and local level, and how much of an influence that’s having on our ability to get things done.
“I’m particularly pleased to be supporting the Act policy this year that’s actually campaigning on reducing the number of government ministries and departments and ensuring that there is a direct line of accountability for each of those ministries to someone that we elect.”
Mr Beamish said he was “really happy” with the Ministry for Regulation, established in 2024, and “the amount of red tape and silly rules that have been unwound through that”.
“I think that’s got a lot of value for the country in terms of freeing us up to do things.”
He said he had also been impressed with the reinstatement of the three strikes law and Act’s influence on National “in terms of preventing them from going towards further taxing” had been valuable.
Mr Beamish finished fourth in voting in 2023 with 2477 votes, while Act finished third with 5473 votes.
Both were improvements on his 2020 campaign.