Green Party Dunedin candidate Francisco Hernandez posted on X that he was "shaking and crying that New Zealand First are going to get a staffing presence in Dunedin before the Greens".
"Sometimes I get the feeling that nobody in the party north of the Waitaki River gives a s... about us," he posted.
Otago regional councillor and Greens member Alan Somerville said the party was "working on it" and expected there would eventually be a staffing presence in Dunedin.
"It’s important for us to have that presence in Dunedin, particularly as we have an MP, Scott Willis, who is based in the Taieri electorate."
When approached about the post, Mr Hernandez told the Otago Daily Times he had also been informed about the moves to establish staffing in Dunedin and would in future contact the party office directly before making such posts online.
A spokesman for the Greens said no decisions had been made about how the party would allocate resources "in such a way as to connect with local communities".
"Whatever decision is made, over the next three years the Green Party will be working closely with communities all over Aotearoa, including Dunedin, to build support for bold climate action, the protection of native wildlife and ensuring everyone has what they need to get by.”
NZ First will soon have a leader’s office in Dunedin as part of its moves to extend its reach.
Party operations director Holly Howard said rather than establishing separate offices for its MPs, as it had done previously when in Parliament, this time it was establishing "outreach offices" for wider areas.
"We thought that Dunedin would be a good place because it has got a lot of challenges and it does risk being ignored.
"The Auckland outreach office is already in place; the Dunedin office is second priority.
"Dunedin is very much on the party’s radar.
"We want to ensure we can connect to the community."
The principal purpose of the outreach office was for NZ First MPs to be able to have the right connections whenever they visited the region.
NZ First MP and Rural Communities Minister and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson stood as a candidate for Taieri in the general election.
National was accused of neglecting Dunedin during the election campaign. It followed MP Michael Woodhouse announcing his retirement after being given a lowly list ranking.
In a controversial exit interview, Mr Woodhouse said Dunedin had many important issues for which it needed local representation and the progress of the new Dunedin hospital needed local scrutiny.
There are also no ministers inside Cabinet based south of the Waitaki, although Mr Patterson and Penny Simmonds, of Invercargill, are ministers outside Cabinet.
