Campaign diary: The ultimate definition of confidence

Can she fix it?

The Dunkirk spirit is still alive in the National Party. President Michelle Boag will address Wellington's National Press Club next Wednesday - three days before polling day. The title of her speech? "Yes, we can win."

New pecking order

The Alliance chicken is back. The 2m high bird was the star of the Taranaki-King Country byelection campaign in 1998, mercilessly lampooning candidates from other parties. Now Alliance president Matt McCarten has resuscitated the creature to peck away at former Alliance leader Jim Anderton because he is "too chicken" to agree to a one-on-one debate with the Alliance's Wigram candidate. Mr Anderton is quite happy to take on the Alliance in a forum involving all the electorate's candidates.

Birdbrained

Talking of chickens, the Greens yesterday launched their animal welfare policy by symbolically releasing three bedraggled looking, feather-deprived ex-battery hens around the back of Parliament. The stunt coincided with one of the coldest days of the winter, leaving reporters and photographers to ponder whether the birds, used to the warmth of indoors, might have preferred to be back on the farm.

Feast after famine

Parliament's loneliest press secretary, United Future's Mark Stonyer, is in demand. His leader's unexpected appeal to TVNZ's Worm has seen media calls and congratulations flood in. Suddenly the man "banned" from one Press Gallery office because his party is too boring is in the eye of a storm. Is it just a one-day wonder? Or will the chief suspect behind a scurrilous annual gossip sheet that mocks political reporters' dress sense, their political leanings and their coffee intake find his press releases being treated more seriously now?

Corned off

Helen Clark has been happy to sign autographs on request during the campaign but not yesterday. A woman approached the Prime Minister during a stop at a steel foundry in Oamaru and asked her to put her moniker on a vacuum-packed corn cob. Helen Clark was not impressed and walked off.

Where the leaders are:

* Helen Clark is in Tauranga and Tokoroa.

* Bill English campaigns in Whangarei and Auckland.

* Jeanette Fitzsimons speaks at Grey Power meetings in Paeroa and Rod Donald campaigns in Upper Hutt.

* Winston Peters campaigns in Auckland and Hamilton.

* Richard Prebble does radio and television interviews and speaks at the Pacific Economic Forum in Auckland.

* Peter Dunne campaigns in Auckland, including at a business leaders lunch.

* Jim Anderton campaigns in Christchurch, attends the Engineers Union conference in Rotorua and visits Hamilton and Huntly.

* Laila Harre speaks to the Engineers Union conference in Rotorua and at a candidates meeting in Waitakere.

Full news coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/election

Election links:
The parties, policies, voting information, and more

Ask a politician:
Send us a question, on any topic, addressed to any party leader. We'll choose the best questions to put to the leaders, and publish the answers in our election coverage.