Claire Trevett: Faithful lap up 'we can win' spirit

Labour Party leader David Cunliffe. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It was at the same venue as the National Party's conference the week before, but the Labour Party "congress" came in a different colour, with a different policy, a different slogan and a different hashtag.

National promised asphalt and berms for the regions, Labour promised teachers and small classes.

National's TeamKey hashtag for social media was pilloried by the left, but Labour didn't escape scot-free with its VotePositive slogan either. One person on Twitter observed it sounded like a pregnancy test while another moaned it was grammatically incorrect.

The key message was also different. National's message was that it could still lose. Labour's was that it could still win.

The other difference was that at Labour's conference the flock actually believed the message they were given. There was chanting, drumming and clapping as David Cunliffe took to the stage, where he kicked off with the words "It's election year and we are going to win". The effect was akin to Moses parting the Red Sea - they quite forgot there was a wee gap in the polls to overcome first.

The congress also featured a bit of a battle of international leaders. Labour's conference featured new Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, who skipped an ALP conference in West Australia to visit New Zealand's instead.

It was possibly an attempt for a bit of payback against Prime Minister John Key, who has managed to arrange an uncanny amount of run-ins with international leaders in his election year schedule - from the royal visit and his visit to the White House, to the upcoming visit by Japan's Prime Minister Abe. Shorten helped them along, albeit inadvertently. After singing the praises of Cunliffe, he got Key's name wrong by calling him "Prime Minister Keys".

Shorten is in distinguished company on the Keys front. US President Barack Obama made the same mistake once.