BayBuzz publisher Tom Belford hopes to provide more transparency to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council if he is elected in October's local government elections.
The Tukituki Valley resident has announced his candidacy for the regional council and intends to stand for the Hastings constituency.
He said Hawke's Bay needed "more jobs and better paying ones" to prosper and while acknowledging the importance of the farming sector believed the region needed to diversify economically.
"I think what this whole Fonterra episode is outlining is we can't be what I call a one-trick pony. We can't be it as a nation, we can't be it as a region.
"The two things I'm most concerned about is the trust issue, which I think has to be solved through a hell of a lot more transparency and the other thing is this diversification.