Broadcaster turned political candidate Paul Henry has debuted at No 4 on the ACT Party list, making it likely he will enter Parliament next term on current polling.

The party released its full candidate list ranking on Sunday, with fellow newcomer James Christmas debuting at seven.

Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard has jumped from fifth to third, while Children's Minister Karen Chhour has gone up one ranking to replace him at number five on the list.

However, MPs Todd Stephenson, Parmjeet Parmar and Cameron Luxton have fallen in rank: Luxton form 11th to 12th, Parmer from ninth to 10th and Stephenson, who has dropped from fourth on the list to sixth.

The party's new deputy leader, Nicole McKee, has taken second on the list, following the departure of out-going MP and deputy leader Brooke van Velden.

Speaking to media, leader David Seymour said he felt an "awesome responsibility" and he "must get these people elected to Parliament".

"The biggest stories today is the ACT Party is planning to re-elect every one of its incumbent MPs - except two who have retired for understandable reasons."

"All of them will be re-elected on current polling and then a couple more." 

He said has was "absolutely confident" Henry would perform will in Parliament, despite having no prior experience.

"The thing about Paul is that a lot of New Zealanders know Paul for about two minutes of video that lingers on YouTube 15 years later."

"I know Paul from sitting down with him in the office, at his house, having a wine. He's a deeply patriotic, sincere and conscientious New Zealander who's doing this for his grandkids who he loves deeply." 

Seymour said Hoggard and Stephenson also debuted high on the list without prior experience, so the move was not "unprecedented".

Seymour denied ACT was "making room" for Henry and Christmas.

"We get a list; we take into account every aspect of a person's performance [and] obviously some of our candidates are experienced MPs.

"I wouldn't say that we've made room, I would say that we have ranked our list on all of their attributes, including their parliamentary experience."

Far North councillor Davina Smolders - a vocal opponent of unelected iwi and hapū representation on councils - is ranked 19 on the list.

Asked about Smolder's position on the list, Seymour said he had nothing against "controversial figures".

"I've actually got quite some sympathy for them, to be honest. Davina Smolders has stood up to anti-democratic practices... there's three Māori in this front row here who very strongly believe in democracy and support Davina."

The first 20 candidates are listed as follows:

1: David Seymour

2: Nicole McKee

3: Andrew Hoggard

4: Paul Henry

5: Karen Chhour

6: Todd Stephenson

7: James Christmas

8: Simon Court

9: Laura McClure

10: Parmjeet Parmar

11: Iain Murray

12: Cameron Luxton

13: Antonia Modkova

14: Alex Price

15: Janelle Hocking

16: Ash Parmar

17: Yang Qu

18: Davina Smolders

19: Amanda Roberts

20: Callum Sheridan

The full list is available on ACT's website.