The National Party knew of its Hamilton East candidate's anti-fluoride comments prior to his selection, leader Christopher Luxon says.
Luxon told reporters on Monday morning that Ryan Hamilton's previous remarks were "entirely inappropriate" and "wrong", and the candidate's views now mirror the party's stance, which is to support the Ministry of Health's management of fluoridation.
RNZ first reported on Monday morning that the National Party candidate, who has a good shot at winning the Hamilton East electorate seat, previously made comments on social media in opposition to fluoridation and questioned National's position on vaccine mandates.
In one comment posted in 2013, Hamilton reportedly said he supported getting rid of fluoride.
"The poverty issue is redundant, most lower socioeconomics fill their tap water with raro so pull the other one."
Luxon confirmed on Monday that Hamilton remained a candidate for the party.
"His comments were from about 10 years ago, they were entirely inappropriate and he was wrong," Luxon said.
"He's subsequently apologised for those remarks and our position on fluoride is very much aligned with the Government, which is that we have supported the Government moving fluoride management from local councils to the Director-General of the Ministry of Health."
He said National knew of the anti-fluoride comments when Hamilton was selected.
"He was a long-serving local government councillor in Hamilton, so they were well-known. His comments were known, but his position has changed. If everyone is going for their record of what they said 10 years ago, you won't have anyone going for Parliament."
Luxon said the comment about "lower socio economics" was "completely inappropriate".
Hamilton once supported someone on social media saying Luxon needed to explain his party's position on "illegal mandates", according to RNZ.
Luxon said Hamilton is fully-vaccinated and was a local council "arguing at the time that people should be able to come into council buildings whether they were vaccinated or unvaccinated".
The National leader repeatedly made a point of noting that Hamilton's views had changed and were now the same as the party's.
Luxon dismissed an accusation of hypocrisy when it was put to him that National had recently taken aim at Labour's Deborah Russell for a blog post she did in 2013. In that post, Russell said removing interest deducibility would be a bad idea.
But she now supports such a move, which was made by the Government in 2021. The National Party in August said her previous comment meant she was at "odds with her own Government's tenant tax policy".
Luxon said the two situations were "different", with Russell being an associate Revenue Minister.
"In this case, all I can talk to is this particular issue. What I see here is an individual who has made some comments that were wrong, inappropriate and they shouldn't be made."
National has had several stumbles with candidate selection.
In April, Newshub reported that the National candidate for Maungakiekie, Greg Fleming, had once compared civil unions to polygamy and incest. He's since said that the comments "weren't helpful" and he "wouldn't make them again."
Stephen Jack was National's candidate for Taieri until resigning earlier this year over controversial social media posts, one of which included likening former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to Adolf Hitler.
Last year, soon after winning the Tauranga by-election, National's Sam Uffindell came under scrutiny after it was revealed he beat a younger student while at high school.
