National's electoral hopes ride on rainbow ticket

National's line-up of new candidates in Auckland has a distinctly more colourful look for this year's election than the middle-aged white-man stereotype.

Three of the five new candidates are non-Pakeha and of the 10 National candidates for Labour-held seats, only three are Pakeha and even one of those has the colourful surname Blue.

The party says there was no deliberate effort to make the party browner.

"We selected on skill and ability and also on reflecting the community, like you do in any electorate," said party president Judy Kirk.

Leader Don Brash said all were selected on merit.

Some novices are pitted against Labour's most experienced politicians.

The candidate challenging Prime Minister Helen Clark's 16,000 majority in Mt Albert is an Indian Baptist pastor, Ravi Musuku, who arrived in New Zealand just seven years ago.

His message is a simple one: "If people vote for me, then I will be able to defeat Helen Clark."

Mr Musuku, 48, is with the Baptist Church in Hillsborough. He came from Guntur in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The National Party invited him to be the candidate for ethnically diverse Mt Albert, where 35 per cent of the electorate were not born in New Zealand.

He said he liked National's valuesof personal responsibility, strongfamilies, safer communities anda hand up, not a hand out.

The party has chosen a 37-year-old New Zealand-born Samoan, Fepulea'i Ulua'ipou-O-Malo Aiono, to tackle the 12,548 majority of Police Minister George Hawkins in Manurewa.

She spent 11 years in the United States before returning to New Zealand recently.

She disputed the notion that National or Dr Brash did not have a good record in race relations.

Anyone who thought that had not met Dr Brash, she said.

"Labour is excellent at creating myths that National was responsible for creating disharmony among the races. It really doesn't exist. When you strip it right down all Labour's policies are based on negative reinforcement."

She looked at all political parties and thought National best reflected her values of self-sufficiency and economic independence.

Another first-time candidate is 48-year-old breast specialist Dr Jackie Blue, who is standing in Mt Roskill, where Foreign Minister Phil Goff has a majority of 13,715.

She said she wanted to change the "culture and direction New Zealand was following".

"I am very concerned that the tax system is quite punishing and there is no incentive for hard workers, middle New Zealand. I'm concerned about the welfare system and the waiting lists in the hospitals."

Dr Blue said she would run a hard party-vote campaign and give Mr Goff "a run for his money".

She said she wasn't named after the song Jackie Blue by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils - she was a young teenager when that song hit the charts - and noted that there is a heavy metal group of the same name in the United States.

Blue was her maiden name and belonged to her Scots forebears.

Three Maori candidates are standing in general Auckland seats held by Labour: former MP Tau Henare is standing in Te Atatu again, Mita Harris, who stood in the northern Maori seat of Te Tai Tokerau, is standing in New Lynn (National is not contesting the Maori seats this election), and first-time candidate Paula Bennett is standing in Waitakere.

Dr Brash said he expected that some of the candidates would get winnable positions on National's list this time, though he will be asking the list selection committee to rank all the sitting MPs first to avoid what happened last election.

Then, many lower-ranked list MPs spent more energy soliciting support for the constituency vote rather than the crucial party vote which determines the overall number of MPs each party has in Parliament.

"National has really got its head around MMP this time, perhaps for the first time. The key point ... is you want all your MPs pushing for the list vote, not for the constituency vote."

National's Auckland candidates

Labour-held seats

* Auckland Central - Pansy Wong, MP.
* Mangere - Clem Simich, MP.
* Manurewa - Fepulea'i Ulua'ipou-O-Malo Aiono.
* Maungakiekie - Paul Goldsmith.
* Mt Albert - Ravi Musuku.
* Mt Roskill - Jackie Blue.
* New Lynn - Mita Harris.
* Northcote - Jonathan Coleman.
* Te Atatu - Tau Henare.
* Waitakere - Paula Bennett.

National -held seats

* Clevedon - Judith Collins, MP.
* East Coast Bays - Murray McCully, MP.
* Epsom - Richard Worth, MP.
* Helensville - John Key, MP.
* North Shore - Wayne Mapp, MP.
* Pakuranga - Maurice Williamson, MP.
* Tamaki - Allan Peachey.