Brash rebuffed twice in bid to recruit new blood for National

Two high-profile candidates touted as star National MPs of the future are believed to have turned down places on the party's list, as it struggles to get in new blood.

Sources said Ngai Tahu academic Te Maire Tau had met with party leader Don Brash in an Auckland restaurant and been conditionally offered the number five spot on the party list - the same spot in which Dr Brash was elected to Parliament in 2002.

But after lengthy talks, Dr Tau had turned down the star billing.

So had Dunedin barrister Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, who sparked grumblings among MPs after being wooed with the rumoured offer of the attorney-general portfolio. Dr Brash addressed the party's southern regional conference in Dunedin yesterday, boasting: "We have the people. We have the policies, too."

The party holds only one more regional conference, in the central North Island next week, before releasing its list for the election.

Unlike Labour's list, National's will be significantly changed from 2002, with the elevation of Dr Brash and the demotion of ousted spokeswomen Georgina te Heuheu and Katherine Rich.

Dr Brash mounted a strongly worded attack on Prime Minister Helen Clark's integrity after leaked briefs of evidence revealed the extent of her role in an erroneous Sunday Star-Times story about former police commissioner Peter Doone.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY