Election 2020: Financial adviser Jonathan Marshall stands for New Conservative Party in Whanganui electorate

Jonathan Marshall is standing for the New Conservative Party and has been elected as the candidate for the Whanganui electorate. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui's New Conservative Party candidate said he is driven by family, community and economic policies.

And Jonathan Marshall has taken the opportunity to voice his beliefs and policies for the electorate.

A husband, father and grandfather, Marshall was motivated to stand because he felt his passions aligned with a number of the party's policies.

"We're losing a lot of what we are as a country through extra regulation or lack of freedoms so what motivated me to join the New Conservative Party was the idea of bringing back an aspirational base aspect of our personal identity that we have as a nation and do it well and do it hard."

Marshall has 35 years' experience in financial planning, economics and financial advice having owned several businesses and being involved with two partnerships in the South Taranaki.

He said throughout the regions at the moment, including Whanganui, there was a lot of centralisation of government services that have gone away from the region including health and education.

"This is sucking our young people out of our communities and they never really come back," he said.

One proposal he has as a candidate is to turn Whanganui into a manufacturing regional hub.

"Now we have a situation where the Government is giving money to support arts and other things around the place that really don't provide too much of an economic return, we should actually be looking at subsidising manufacturing, especially with the new trading partner coming on the scene which is England.

"Why don't we look at turning our nation back into a manufacturing nation, looking at not people wearing boiler suits and dressed in grease but what about white coats and technology - looking at how we can actually manufacture things without necessarily labour on the chains but labour on the technology side, making sure the chain works well and we can do that."

He said Whanganui had the labour and people willing to look at these opportunities.

"We can grow nice hubs in places like Whanganui that actually turns our places into communities with manufacturing and with economic wellbeing at the heart without disjointing the family."

He said the Government had done a great job handling the Covid-19 situation in New Zealand but believed it didn't know how to make money.

"The only way we're going to pay back this debt is to increase our GDP because taxing people more doesn't pay back debt. It just reduces money in the economy, and we need to pay back this debt and we need to do it as quickly as possible for this generation so that our children and grandchildren don't have to pay for it."

He said the New Conservative Party has a plan to increase GDP by 20 per cent and it is done through manufacturing.

"Going forward there's still a good chance that we still only have the two major parties so it's our hope as New Conservative that we can get in excess of 5 per cent and maybe win one or two seats somewhere," Marshall said.

"Whether it's wrong or right, when it's down to me I'd rather be an honest politician than one that tells you what you want to hear and never goes about doing it."