KEY POINTS:
Act party leader Rodney Hide is expected to outline a major education policy at the party's annual conference tomorrow and tell party supporters that similarities between National and Labour will make this year Act's chance for a comeback.
The party's annual conference begins in Auckland today and although Act was languishing below 1 per cent in the polls, Mr Hide said National leader John Key's move to the centre had created more space for the party to reclaim its old support base.
He said Act's support had always "waxed and waned" between elections but the party was given a "drubbing" in 2005 when it was cut from nine MPs to two.
He said Act would push the message that "only Act can change the direction of the country" because National's policies were so close to Labour.
"I feel that politics this year isn't going to be a debate about substance and alternative direction and vision. The nature of it is going to be a debate very much at the margins of policy, and minute details that will be amplified, and of course a personality debate."
Mr Hide said he was confident he could retain the Epsom electorate and National's re-selection of Richard Worth as its candidate was an indication that National was content for him to keep the seat.
"I've gone out and done the work and now I believe other political parties and the media accept I will win the seat. I'm more worked up about it than others, because I'll never take it for granted."
Mr Hide's speech tomorrow is expected to focus on education, and he said health and the economy would also be significant factors in the campaign.
Act would clearly set out its bottom lines for post-election talks with other parties before the election.
Mr Hide said it was yet to decide on its bottom lines, but there were three major areas he had been working on which were likely to be Act's election planks. They included cutting red tape "because we are strangling in it" and putting more controls on government spending.
The conference will also mark the official comeback of Sir Roger Douglas, who has offered to help the party in the election campaign after quitting it in 2002.
He has been travelling around New Zealand approaching potential candidates, some of whom are expected to be announced tomorrow.
