Labour has goody-bag of tricks for final week

Labour leader Phil Goff. Photo / Doug Sherring

Labour is hoping to regain momentum in the last week of the election campaign with a rally for party faithful in Auckland tomorrow and a final blast of negative television advertising about National's record.

Labour leader Phil Goff yesterday acknowledged that the final week would be "a big challenge for us".

"But then the French were the underdogs right up to the five minutes before the start of the last test," he said. Reminded that the French lost, Mr Goff said: "Yeah, but I can do it differently."

The latest Herald-DigiPoll survey has Labour on 29.1 per cent, no change from the first week of the campaign.

Labour has been sidelined in television coverage in the past week in the furore over the taping of the cafe discussion between Prime Minister John Key and Act Epsom candidate John Banks.

All of Labour's major policies have been released. Its strategists are hoping tomorrow's rally and the two live television debates with the PM on TV3 and TVNZ will give Mr Goff - and Labour - a lift in the last week.

The television ads have begun running already but will intensify.

They feature a series of statistics about National's record, with pictures of Mr Key with a shushing finger to his mouth - intended to suggest they are issues he doesn't want to talk about.