Election hopefuls face questions in Carterton

Wairarapa's election hopefuls presented their case to about 50 people at a meeting at Carterton Memorial Club on Thursday, with hot topics ranging from unemployment to asset sales.

National's John Hayes said if elected, the party headed by John Key would continue to provide "strong, stable leadership".

"We're backing Key's ability to get out there and take on the world," he said.

Mr Hayes said the party was aiming to be in surplus in less than three years.

"We're offering to sell 49 per cent of the shares in five electricity generator companies ... together they're worth less than three per cent of our total assets."

Labour's Michael Bott asked for the people's electorate and candidate vote, and said his party's policies focused on opposing asset sales, and removing tax on fruit and vegetables.

When asked why he thought the party was polling badly, he said many of his supporters moved around a lot and did not have landlines due to the economy.

"That raises a number of systems questions about how polling systems operate," he said.

The Green Party's Sea Rotmann had three words to sum up her parties policies - kids, rivers, and jobs.

She said the party hoped to create more jobs by insulating houses and training people to be professional builders.

"We've got one million houses in this country that need insulating ... we need more builders and we need to train them," she said.

Mrs Rotmann also responded to a dig at single-parent households by the Conservative Party's Brent Reid. "Some single mothers are very capable of bringing up successful children," she said, using herself as an example.

Mr Reid said the 10-week-old party's policies included repealing the anti-smacking law, raising the driving licence age and having life imprisonment sentences mean life.

The Act Party's Shane Atkinson said he agreed with the idea of selling assets.

"Yes, I certainly do. They're businesses the government doesn't need to be in."