Tracy Livingston represents the NZ Outdoors Party and has very clear environmental and social goals for Tauranga.

Her degree in Applied Science underscores a deep interest in the health of people, the environment and how the two are related.

'The NZ Outdoors Party wants to do conservation differently from the Greens.

'The Greens have completely lost their way. They had a strong anti-1080 policy, but they've tripled the amount of 1080 they've been using in our native forests.

'For us, 1080 is non-negotiable. We want to protect our native species without using poisons. We're not against conservation. We just want to do it differently.”

The other non-negotiable is the Outdoors Party policy of putting a moratorium on 5G until it is clear 5G causes the environment no harm.

'5G operates at 60 billion cycles per second which causes cell damage. There's no resource consent required to put up the cell phone towers, the consents are 20 years old and not fit for purpose.”

Overfishing is another key priority.

'We want to change overfishing because we're losing all our fish. We've been shipping our fish offshore for less than $1 per kilo.

'The fishing industry has dumped enough fish to feed New Zealand for 125 years. It doesn't make sense. It's as if you were a farmer, killed all your sheep and cows and let them die in the paddock - that's what's happening but out to sea where no one sees it. We want to take back the fishing industry for Kiwis.

'It's not the government's job to push people into poverty. Yet that is what they're doing. Think of the living wage – it is $40,000 a year, so if we're taxing anyone who earns less than $40k a year we're driving people into poverty.

'We want to see low-cost home-loans for first-time buyers with a steady low home-loan rate that is manageable.

'We'd change the RMA to allow for different kinds of housing, for tiny houses and communal living. It's a nice way to live, you're taking up less land and you're much more community-oriented. At the moment councils control the types of houses built. Developers only make money from a certain kind of house, so why would they build any other kind? We'll change legislation to make it easier to build alternative housing.

'We would subsidise farmers into organic regenerative agriculture. We need to support our farmers into healthier ways that naturally help carbon sequestration.”

The party is fielding nearly 30 candidates nationwide from diverse backgrounds in business, health, councils, law, tourism, real estate, and many others. Tracy is third on the party list.

'We're just normal people, we really care and we really want New Zealanders to do well. For us it's making decisions for Kiwis not corporations.”