By VERNON SMALL deputy political editor
The National Party kicks off its three-day annual conference in Auckland today preoccupied with a tight presidential race that yesterday saw incumbent John Slater blame the party's own MPs for its woes.
Mr Slater said he was being penalised for a lack of public perception about what the party was doing. "That's really a fault of the caucus rather than a fault of the president."
Mr Slater, a 57-year-old Auckland textile importer, is the underdog in the race but believes he is closing the gap on challenger Michelle Boag.
Ms Boag, a 46-year-old Auckland public relations consultant, is the clear favourite after garnering four of the five regional conference nominations.
She is understood to have the backing of most of the party's 39 MPs.
The winner, in what is seen as the most hotly contested presidential race since John Collinge defeated Neville Young in 1989, will be decided on Sunday morning by the 650 delegates.
Facing a huge deficit in the polls, the party's leadership is hoping to speed preparations for a spring blitz to bring it back onto the public's radar screen.
Central to the conference's policy work will be taskforce reports on seniors and superannuation, constitutional issues and youth and tertiary policy and sessions on business and social issues.
Leader Jenny Shipley aims to have most of the policy written by the end of the year.
She and finance spokesman Bill English are expected to stress the theme "going for growth."
That is likely to include long-term plans to lift New Zealand into the top half of OECD countries, requiring at least a doubling of the current growth rate.
National has been working on popularising that message through detailed examples of the impact of higher growth on household spending power.
Education, full employment, immigration, innovation, controlling Government spending and future tax cuts will be presented as key ingredients for a major gear-change in economic performance.
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