KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday announced a retraining allowance for people who have been in the workforce 10 years and want to retrain in a new area.
The allowance would be available for up to a year for enrolment in a recognised full-time course, including to those who
had previously used up their full-time student allowance entitlement.
Outlining the policy at Labour's campaign launch in Auckland, Helen Clark said: "My dream has always been to enable our young people - and mature students - to have the kind of support my generation had in full-time quality tertiary education."
The plan is separate to another retaining allowance she announced as part of the Government's response to the financial crisis and looming economic slowdown.
That one would be available to people who had been in the workforce for at least five years and who had been made redundant. It would be on the same basis as a student allowance but with no spousal income test.
Helen Clark also signalled yesterday that education and skills training would be a key plank of Labour's campaign, building on its "schools plus" policy.
She set a new target of a further 1000 modern apprenticeships over the next three years, taking the total from 14,000 at present to 17,000 by the end of 2011.
She also set a target of having 10 per cent of the workforce, or 230,000 people, in industry training by the end of 2011. Last year there were 185,000.
The launch was at the Auckland Town Hall, packed with at least 1200 people. Labour's launch in 2005 was at the same venue.
Band Elemeno P, with multi-media star Oscar Kightley as Mc, warmed up the crowd.
The party's youngest MP, Darren Hughes, and Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen were given the job of promoting Helen Clark's leadership.
Drawing on the Hillary Clinton ad against Barack Obama's lack of experience, Mr Hughes said; "We know that if the phone in New Zealand goes at 3am, not only would Helen already be awake, but she would have sent out a detailed text message in response in about the time it takes the rest of us to leave a voice message.
"Helen has always understood that you can't govern by the rear-vision mirror. You can't wait around to see how things pan out and then decide what to do."
He said Helen Clark provided leadership New Zealand could trust in the world's new economic environment "now that the ostentatious culture of Wall St has turned in and collapsed on itself."
"She is bold enough to take us through that difficult period, inclusive enough to look after all our people and trusted to get the job done."
It was evident from Mr Hughes and Helen Clark's own speech that Labour will campaign on foreign affairs issues.
Mr Hughes said Helen Clark's standing internationally meant "her views and therefore New Zealand's perspective is sought on a scale much larger than a country of four million people would normally expect."
Helen Clark talked about the Iraq war - exploiting previous confusion over whether National would have joined the coalition of the willing in invading Iraq in 2003.
She raised the issue of Iraq in her brag-bag of achievements around free-trade deals, saying National claimed that because New Zealand had been "missing in action" in Iraq, it would never get a free-trade agreement with the United States.
"I would rather New Zealand was missing in action in Iraq than have our soldiers missing in action in a war when the cause wasn't right."
Helen Clark heads to Dunedin today.
