I first met Margaret Colmore about 22 years ago, when she arrived from South Africa with her family in 1998 after sailing for about two years around the world.

She had seen many places but told me when she arrived in the Bay of Plenty, she knew New Zealand was going to be home.

She decided to run in this year's general election as the Bay of Plenty candidate for New Conservative after recognising a pattern she had previously seen back in South Africa.

'I became concerned with the direction our country is being taken down with gender ideology being taught in schools, divisive policies that favour one race over another and increasing regulations being placed on farmers culminating in the Zero Carbon Act.”

She feels these issues are sabotaging our society.

'The science of climate change is being manipulated to bring about a global government to bring in socialism.”

Margaret says that New Conservative believes the billions paid to the United Nations as carbon tax can be better utilised in finding solutions to New Zealand pollution issues, such as replacing 1080.

'I decided to put my time and energy into New Conservative because of their focus on strong families, free speech, lower personal taxation, the value of human life, a reduction in state regulations, the emphasis on New Zealand's sovereignty, efficiency in government spending and a greater attention to genuine democracy. These are all values that I stand for and support.”

Margaret sees the need for strengthening families.

'Without a strong family base, you're not going to have a strong stable nation. We have policies that will strengthen families, such as income splitting between husband and wife, so that they pay less tax.

'The first $20,000 of income will be tax free. We're going to raise the tax brackets so that people can take home more.”

Margaret is keen to cut out bureaucratic red tape.

'Small business has a lot of unnecessary rules and regulations that are strangulating profit margins and the efficiency of business.

'We want to simplify regulations, which would make a huge difference to all businesses.”

The party's housing policy too is about simplifying rules and freeing up land.

'We also want to bring back trades into schools so that youth can hone in on what they are good at.”

Margaret is one of 50 candidates standing for New Conservative, with about 85 per cent being business owners, and all pushing family values.

'All very good quality candidates who have been very well vetted,” says Margaret.

She believes the party is going to go a long way in this election.

'We've got the strongest ground swell support throughout New Zealand that we've ever had. So that's very cool. We want the party vote.”

The Weekend Sun and SunLive will be profiling candidates from various political parties over the next few weeks.