KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark is urging her team to be relentlessly positive as Labour enters election year behind in the polls, and as she endeavours to halt the head-start National has regularly built at the start of recent years.
The first Cabinet meeting of the year was held
yesterday and ministers heard the message that Helen Clark wanted them to take a positive approach.
She conceded that last year "had its challenges", but emphasised to reporters that there was also a lot of achievements for Labour to talk about.
"Looking ahead, obviously the emphasis now is on the new policy development being completed, ongoing implementation of existing policy, because an election is not due till towards the end of the year," she said.
"It's a busy year as we move forward to prepare for the election campaign."
Trailing National by a large gap in political polls at the end of last year, Helen Clark has altered her normal January schedule to incorporate a speech. She traditionally gives her first address of the year at the opening of Parliament, but next Wednesday she is set to make a breakfast speech to the Waitakere Business Club.
The event is being billed by the club as Helen Clark talking about "the direction the country now needs to take to make certain the potential created by sustained economic growth is fully realised".
The Prime Minister's speech is being made the morning after National leader John Key makes his annual state-of-the-nation address, and apart from potentially detracting from what Mr Key has to say, anticipation is building that the Prime Minister could be set to make an announcement or an important statement.
Details of what she will talk about are being kept under wraps - in much the same way that National has handled its January addresses in recent years.
Asked yesterday what she would be talking about, Helen Clark said she would set out "some of our key issues and priorities" for the year ahead.
She would choose in coming days what to use in next week's speech and what to save for the opening of Parliament address in February.
However, Helen Clark said voters could expect to see a strong emphasis on sustainability this year, with emissions trading legislation before Parliament and a transport strategy to be reviewed.
There would be a "big emphasis on infrastructure generally" this year and education and skills, she said.
National has gained significant early traction in recent years through its annual January speech by the leader.
Last year Mr Key identified an "underclass" and then went to visit a street he identified in the speech.
Earlier former leader Don Brash had a huge impact when he made a "one law for all" speech on Maori issues.
Asked if she was making her speech to try to ensure National didn't get a head-start in election year, Helen Clark said she wanted to take the chance to speak to a more general audience than the statement to Parliament allowed.
"It is election year, we've got a lot to say," she said. "We've got a lot that's positive that we've achieved, but we're also very conscious of needing to respond to new issues, roll out new policy - I'll be outlining some of my thinking."