Goldsmith urges Epsom voters to give National both ticks

National's Paul Goldsmith has asked Epsom voters to back his party on both of their ballot papers. Speaking at a candidates' debate on Thursday night, he said that "we've got to do things differently this time" if the electorate is to keep both an ACT and a National presence. He was arguing for "two ticks blue", meaning a vote for National on the electorate ballot and on the party vote.

The debate was held at Sommervell Presbyterian Church and moderated by Tim Watkin. RNZ reported that it was the 10th election debate held at that location.

Epsom is a single electorate, meaning one MP is chosen by the voters who live there. The seat is described as the country's smallest and wealthiest. ACT has held it since 2005, and David Seymour has been its MP since 2014. National's Paul Goldsmith is ranked sixth on his party's list for the 2026 general election. He has spent his whole time in Parliament as a list MP, which means he has entered Parliament from the party list rather than by winning an electorate.

Five candidates took part: Goldsmith, Seymour, Labour's Camilla Belich, the Greens' Lawrence Xu-Nan and NZ First's Martin Gummer. The Opportunity Party's Paul Jackson did not appear.

The New Zealand Herald described the event as Goldsmith taking on Seymour for the Epsom seat. Newstalk ZB ran its own coverage under the headline "David Seymour, Paul Goldsmith face off in Epsom candidates' debate".

ACT was polling at 11 percent in a 1News Verian poll that RNZ cited in its report on the debate.

Goldsmith is Minister of Justice and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, according to the National Party's website.