National Party candidates to vie for Brash's top 30

National Party MPs will be ranked in the first 30 places of the party list, leader Don Brash said yesterday.

The move is designed to ensure that MPs campaign hard for the party vote, which determines the overall number of MPs each party gets, rather than their personal electorate vote.

With 27 MPs, and at least two - Murray McCully and Maurice Williamson - unlikely to go on the list, there is room for five other candidates to be placed in the top 30.

Mr McCully attended the House for the first time yesterday since the start of the parliamentary year but did not take his allotted seat alongside Katherine Rich, which was occupied by another colleague.

Mr McCully's absence is regularly commented on by the Government, with speculation that he and Katherine Rich have fallen out over her demotion for failing to back Dr Brash's speech on welfare.

Others in the caucus have suggested Mr McCully is working on special projects.

Katherine Rich confirmed last night that Dr Brash would still open her election campaign in Dunedin North on March 11, as arranged last year.

She said she had not fallen out with the leader over her demotion and had lunch with him yesterday in his office.