New Zealand First leader Winston peters speaks to a small crowd in Tauranga.
NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft has been shunted well down the party's list rankings to 17th place – the only current MP who is not in the top 10.
NZ First released its 2020 list today. The top seven slots are taken by the party's current MPs – but Marcroft is in a position in which it is effectively impossible for her to return to Parliament.
The only women in the party's top 10 are Tracey Martin, at 3, and Talani Meikle, 8.
Meikle works for the party's deputy leader Fletcher Tabuteau at Parliament and is helping organise the party's campaign.
She has stood for the party in the past and her high ranking gives her a strong chance of getting into Parliament if the party can get more than 5 per cent.
Leader Winston Peters is No 1 and Tabuteau is at 2, followed by Martin, Shane Jones and Ron Mark as the top five. Former MPs Denis O'Rourke and Mahesh Bindra are at 10 and 12 respectively.
NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft speaks at a debate for Auckland Central candidates. Photo / Dean Purcell
Marcroft is yet to comment. She is standing in the Auckland Central electorate. NZ First's 9th MP, Clayton Mitchell, is stepping down from politics at the election.
The party got 7.2 per cent of the vote in 2017, but is campaigning for its survival after struggling in the polls throughout the last term as a coalition partner to Labour.
Peters has said that Covid-19 has made the campaign an uneven playing field.
It needs to get at least 5 per cent of the party vote, or win an electorate to return to Parliament.
It is targeting Jones' tilt at the Northland electorate.
A TVNZ Colmar Brunton poll of Northland early last month had Jones on 15 per cent support, adrift of National's Matt King (46 per cent) and Labour's Willow Jean Prime (31 per cent).
Labour has ruled out doing a "deal" in the electorate by pulling Prime out or asking Labour voters to support Jones with their electorate vote.
The full NZ First list:
1. Winston Peters 2. Fletcher Tabuteau 3. Tracey Martin 4. Shane Jones 5. Ron Mark 6. Darroch Ball 7. Mark Patterson 8. Talani Meikle 9. David Wilson 10. Denis O'Rourke 11. Erika Harvey 12. Mahesh Bindra 13. Jamie Arbuckle 14. Mark Arneil 15. Joshua Gunn 16. Stu Husband 17. Jenny Marcroft 18. Tricia Lawrence 19. Robert Gore 20. Robert Griffith 21. Jackie Farrelly 22. Anthony Odering 23. Taylor Arneil 24. Anne Degia Pala 25. John Hall 26. Brenda Steele 27. Robert Monds 28. Antony Woollams
