The Progressives have released their party list. The most obvious point is that they are living up to their name on gender, with a 50% ratio in their top 8 candidates (which is probably as far as we need to look), and 12 13 women out of 27. However, they have gone backwards on diversity. Last election, the Progressives were the diversity party, with candidates from the Tongan, Cambodian and Bangladeshi communities in the top ten. This time round, that diversity has been pushed well down the list, and the top spots are all Pakeha. Given that relative list ordering has generally been retained from last time, part of the reason is obviously that those candidates have found other things to do with their lives - but given the Progressives' willingness to parachute a candidate into their top three, and their access to strong candidates from diverse communities, they could surely have done better.
As with other parties, I've done a table showing the top candidates relative placements with last time.
| 2008 Rank | Name | 2005 Rank | Difference |
| 1 | Jim Anderton | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Matt Robson | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | Josie Pagani | -- | -- |
| 4 | Paula Gillon | 13 | +9 |
| 5 | Phil Clearwater | 14 | +9 |
| 6 | Viv Shepherd | 7 | +1 |
| 7 | Trevor Barnard | 15 | +8 |
| 8 | Brenda Hill | 17 | +9 |
| 9 | Craig Hutchinson | -- | -- |
| 10 | Justin Robson | -- | -- |
| 11 | Jeffrey Ly | -- | -- |
| 12 | Suki Amirapu | 27 | +15 |
| 13 | Somnath Bagchi | -- | -- |
| 14 | Sukhdev Bains | 29 | +15 |
| 15 | Racheal Cheam | -- | -- |
| 16 | Mohammad Kazemi-Yazdi | 22 | +8 |
| 17 | Debbie Lucas | -- | -- |
| 18 | Claire Main | 35 | +17 |
| 19 | Phillipa Main | 36 | +17 |
| 20 | John Maurice | 21 | +1 |
| 21 | Jacqui McAlpine | 37 | +16 |
| 22 | Dawn Patchett | 41 | +19 |
| 23 | Tala Po'e | 42 | +19 |
| 24 | Pavitra Roy | 43 | +19 |
| 25 | Elspeth Sandys | 44 | +19 |
| 26 | David Somerset | 48 | +22 |
| 27 | Ralph Taylor | -- | -- |
Further details of their top five candidates can be found here.
Correction (1/10/2008): Corrected number of women candidates; The Hand Mirror has the gender analysis here.
