Originally from South Africa, One Party co-leader Allan Cawood has resided in Tauranga for the past 12 months.
In this Local Focus interview, Cawood names transport and infrastructure as his biggest bugbears.
Besides better public transport and park-and-ride options, Cawood said the city should investigate "tunnelling".
"If you look at places like Sydney and so on, in that city you've got a tunnel for the trains, a tunnel for vehicles and the traffic flows significantly," he said.
To help with the current cost of living crisis Cawood proposed the One Party would remove GST from food and fuel.
"For every $10 you're looking at $1.50 that will actually come back into the people's pockets," he said.
Tauranga residents will vote for their new member of parliament on June 18, following the resignation of National's Simon Bridges.
Advance voting begins on June 4.