KEY POINTS:
Fix it. That was the essence of a text message the Prime Minister sent to Shane Jones a few days ago. She followed it up by leaving a similar message on her Building and Construction Minister's voicemail.
Jones got the message and heeded it. He has been confined to bed with a lingering flu-like lurgy. But he hauled himself into TVNZ's studios on Monday night to reassure Close-Up viewers that no-one would be forced to install a shower head with a maximum six litre a minute water flow.
The world may be going to economic hell in a handcart. But Clark's antennae were alert to the likelihood of Labour taking a bath over the draft alterations to the Building Code requiring that limit on water flow apply to showers in new homes of more than 150sq m and renovated bathrooms.
In the past week - with the help of National's Nick Smith - a change promoted by officials in the interests of energy efficiency and saving homeowners' hundreds of dollars on their power bills has seemingly turned into the worst manifestation of "nanny state" interference.
Websites, newspaper columns and talkback radio have leapfrogged over one another to see who can get the most indignant about this perceived interference in people's lives.
Before you could say "Dancing Cossacks", the spectre was being raised of East European-style inspectors forcing their way into the nation's bathrooms.
The dangers to Labour are obvious. It is the kind of argument in which everyone has a view.
Labour has already been suffering a large and lasting backlash over the anti-smacking bill plus fallout from the pending removal from sale of traditional high-energy light bulbs.
Clark is probably also haunted by the memory of Labour's defeat in 1975, when it got offside with voters for banning cats from dairies.
The attachment of the "nanny state" label to Labour is something Clark refuses to acknowledge. But she is acutely conscious of Labour's vulnerability.
While the Government has regulated that new showers be energy-efficient, the limits on water flow are still subject to consultation.
Clark has told Jones the code must be written in a way which ensures no-one will have to put up with less water flow than they have now.
And, as Jones puts it, he is not going to impose new rules on water pressure in showers if that means he and his Labour colleagues end up getting an early shower.
But the worry for Labour is that the fuss over shower nozzles is symptomatic of a wider mood that has people seizing on anything they don't like as "nanny statism" to justify voting for a change of Government.
