Mark, a former Carterton Mayor, unsuccessfully contested the Wairarapa electorate in the 2014, 2017 and 2020 elections. However, he spent six terms as a list MP after first entering Parliament in 1996.<\/p>\n
He adds to NZ First\u2019s new candidates who are aiming to return to national politics, including former National MPs Alfred Ngaro, Michael Laws and Harete Hipango-Brownlie. Former Labour MP Stuart Nash was recently made to resign after controversial comments about National MP Katie Nimon. <\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Mark wouldn\u2019t confirm whether he would run as a candidate but made several comments indicating the party had moved on from him. <\/p>\n
Speaking to the Herald on Tuesday evening, Mark said he was \u201cstill thinking\u201d and confessed, \u201cevery day is a new thought of no\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be perfectly honest with you, I\u2019ve had a very good offer in Europe and I have a job offer doing the type of work internationally that I think I was very good at while I was the Minister of Defence; defence diplomacy I found to be my forte.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen one is offered a very good job and I will tell you, Luxembourg, doing the sort of work supporting Ukraine that I\u2019ve been doing … coming up five years now, it\u2019s very appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former NZ First minister Ron Mark sits at the same table as leader Winston Peters at the party convention in Auckland. Photo \/ Adam Pearse<\/p>\n
Mark said his experience at the party\u2019s recent two-day conference indicated he may not be needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it told me is they don\u2019t need me. The party\u2019s come of age.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes New Zealand First really need Ron Mark? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople like me maybe do need to accept that we aren\u2019t the party anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Mark acknowledged an interest in having another stint as Defence Minister, saying it was the \u201conly job I\u2019d want\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d hate to do it and find that I had no effect on government policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve watched four Ministers of Defence and they don\u2019t impress me much, but then they don\u2019t have my background, do they? No one in that House does.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZ First grant aimed at declining birthrate<\/p>\n
Peters also spoke to a new election policy to offer a tax-free grant to people who had three children.<\/p>\n
Named the Kiwi Kids Grant, the policy would introduce a universal, tax-free annual grant of $5000 for the first three years for each of the first three children.<\/p>\n
It would be administered as a monthly payment through Inland Revenue, although the first year grant for the first child could be taken as an upfront sum. The party costed the policy at $400 million per year once fully implemented.<\/p>\n
One of the parents must be a New Zealand citizen to be eligible.<\/p>\n
In a statement ahead of Peters\u2019 address, he referenced the country\u2019s current birthrate of 1.53 births per person, which fell below 2.1 births per person which the party said was needed to maintain the population.<\/p>\n
NZ First leader Winston Peters unveiled a new policy at his public meeting in Masterton. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n
Peters also pointed to the \u201cdramatically decreasing\u201d number of births from New Zealand citizens versus that of non-citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut in simple percentage terms; in 2006, 87% of all births were by citizens and 13% non-citizens,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year that percentage was just 72% New Zealand citizens giving birth, and 28% non-citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis equation is severely unbalanced and will only equal a diminishing Kiwi population.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an essential investment in our country\u2019s future demography, culture and sustainable economic future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark, a former Carterton Mayor, unsuccessfully contested the Wairarapa electorate in the 2014, 2017 and 2020 elections. However,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,117581,19956,13116,5903,1888,2082,2740,2347,1899,32573,6722,111,43,139,69,3766,4762,6729,13382,6443,238412,1961,1529,61,11743,1533,6728,102,1530,80],"class_list":["post-555565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-117581","tag-candidate","tag-contest","tag-election","tag-first","tag-for","tag-former","tag-grant","tag-kids","tag-mark","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parents","tag-party","tag-peters","tag-returning","tag-returns","tag-ron","tag-this","tag-three","tag-to","tag-unveils","tag-will","tag-winston","tag-with","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}