{"id":555644,"date":"2026-08-02T04:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/555644\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T04:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:16:08","slug":"ron-mark-returns-to-nz-first-for-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/555644\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Mark returns to NZ First for election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">New Zealand First has confirmed former MP Ron Mark will stand again at this year&#8217;s election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Mark, who served as an MP from 1996 to 2008, and again from 2014 to 2020, served as defence minister in the Labour-led coalition. He has also been the minister for veterans&#8217; affairs and the minister for state-owned enterprises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">He also served two stints as Carterton&#8217;s mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">New Zealand First says Mark will run in the Wairarapa electorate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;With a lifetime of service in the military, local government, Parliament and internationally, Ron Mark brings proven leadership and a deep commitment to serving the people of New Zealand,&#8221; the party said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">NZ First has revealed a number of returning candidates and political defections in recent months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Former National MP Alfred Ngaro was confirmed to be joining the party in May. He&#8217;s joined by another former National MP, Harete Hipango-Brownlie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Former Whanganui Mayor Michael Laws is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/politics\/658049\/former-mayor-broadcaster-michael-laws-to-stand-for-nz-first-in-upcoming-election\" class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">standing as a candidate too<\/a>. He will contest the Waitaki electorate, currently held by National&#8217;s Miles Anderson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand First has confirmed former MP Ron Mark will stand again at this year&#8217;s election. Mark, who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-555644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555644","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=555644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}