Peters poaches life-long Auckland Nat for true-blue Epsom

Saturday, 18 July 2026

Life-long National supporter Martin Gummer is standing for NZ First in Epsom - and wants to see the party’s deputy leader Shane Jones return to Parliament as energy minister.

Gummer was spotted sitting with former National Cabinet minister and NZ First candidate for Glendene Alfred Ngaro at the party’s conference at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau on Saturday morning.

Gummer stood for National as its Waitakere candidate in the 1981 election.

He confirmed to The Post he was standing for NZ First in the Epsom seat - held by ACT Party leader David Seymour - in the 2026 election.

“I think the time’s come. I sort of view the current National Party as very orthodox, political, professional class, and I think New Zealand First provides a more sort of focused drive on issues like energy and manufacturing. More pragmatic, bolder,” he said.

“I still want to see a centre-right government, but I think NZ First provides that extra momentum on the issues that count.”

Jones opened the conference on Saturday morning by rubbishing the major parties and accusing them of overseeing “demographic engineering”.

“Welcome to the first of our successful rallies as we march forward to victory on November the seventh: not for us to be hobbled, stared down, cowered by the vested interests in the more powerful, voluminous parties who don't want us to reflect what our fellow citizens feel in the hinterlands, who don't want us to reflect what garden variety Kiwis are apprehensive over, as they watch demographic engineering before their eyes.”

Jones said NZ First wanted to tackle food and power prices and “a threat to those people on one side who want to reorder New Zealand society without a mandate”.

“They know there's one party who will put New Zealand first, put your neighbours first, put our legacy first, and put our destiny in front of any single element that currently lives in New Zealand, and that's your party, New Zealand First,” Jones said.

Party leader Winston Peters told members NZ First was unashamedly prudent, experienced and of common sense - and would return a bigger caucus after the election.

“Putting New Zealand's interests first has never been a problem for this party. We have an internal gyroscope that keeps us headed in the right direction.

“Time and again we have been willing to run the risk of unpopularity and make the base and the case for New Zealanders. When others wouldn't raise a finger, we have raised the roof. That's our record.

“Ladies and gentlemen, patriotism means something for New Zealand. It means something for New Zealand First, not just a bit of tokenistic flag waving, but a real thing.”

Members will debate remits today and hear from some high-profile candidates, former National Cabinet Minister Alfred Ngaro and former Labour Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash about why they’re chasing a political comeback with NZ First.

Gummer said it was his experience in the energy sector - and recent work with Jones - that led him to stand for NZ First in Epsom.

“Over the last 18 months I've been very active working with industry and manufacturing…and I just felt, they really had no voice and they were all very, very concerned, facing a crisis in terms of the pricing and availability of gas.

“I voluntarily decided to sort of step forward and try and raise the profile of the issue and try and get something done and I organised a forum with Shane Jones, attended by 140 business leaders, and then I organised delegations to Wellington, I put together material submissions and so on, and through that process I got to work a little bit more closely with Shane Jones, and I felt that actually we need a bolder, more strategic approach to energy.

“The current system isn't working. We need to get costs down for business, we need to help make business more internationally competitive and I just thought, I want to see Shane Jones as minster of energy.”

This was all before he considered running as a candidate for the party, he said.

“A friend of mine put it to me. He said, ‘Well, why don't you actually stand for them?’”

Gummer said he lived just outside of the Epsom electorate.

While he had been a long-time supporter of National, he hasn’t been a member for some years, he said.

“I’ve got friends who are but I haven’t been a member for maybe 20 years.”