KEY POINTS:
4.04pm: Labour launches foreign policy
Cabinet minister Phil Goff, a former foreign minister, said today a Labour-led government would look at assembling conflict resolution teams and giving the United Nations a list of New Zealanders who had the skills to be personal envoys.
"New Zealand has a reputation as a country which thinks independently and makes a strong contribution in areas like peacekeeping, disarmament, inter-faith dialogue and development assistance," Mr Goff said.
"We can leverage off this to expand our contribution to conflict resolution."
3.46pm: Roading announcement imminent
Transport Minister Annette King says an announcement on the future of the Waterview Connection - part of a 48km-long Western Ring Route - will be made within days.
Speaking at Labour's transport policy launch today, Mrs King said she understood officials were "very close to completing the extra work I asked them to do and I look forward to making an announcement as soon as possible".
The announcement could reignite the debate on tolling - with both parties promising tolls on major new roads, where an alternative route exists, but at different levels.
Dr Cullen has said they would likely be capped at around $2 a trip but National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson has twice suggested a higher figure.
Mr Key said Mr Williamson's comments were "premature" as National had not yet set any level of tolls.
3.28pm: Call for banks to be 'sensitive'
National Party leader John Key and Greens co-leader Russel Norman have urged banks to be careful how they handle customers who find it hard to pay their mortgages.
Mr Key said today the banking industry had been helped by the Government through its deposit guarantee scheme.
"My expectation is that in the light of this, banks will be very careful about the manner in which they deal with customers who may, as a consequence of the global financial crisis, find it hard to meet their obligations," he told the Waikato Chamber of Commerce.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said banks should behave responsibly and "act sensitively" in return for taxpayer-funded guarantees.
"We don't want to see big penalty payments forced on borrowers who struggle to meet their repayment schedule if they lose their job," he said.
12.35pm: Key delivers employment 'rescue' package
John Key has announced his transitional allowance package in Hamilton.
Herald reporter Paula Oliver, who's on the campaign trail with the National Party leader, reports there are two components to the assistance:
* a change to the Working For Families arrangement, meaning people who are receiving Working For Families assistance and are made redundant will be able to get the equivalent of the in-work tax credit;
* an increase of $100 to the maximum weekly accommodation supplement.
Redundant workers will be eligible for the assistance for a maximum of 16 weeks, or until they get a new job.
11.35am: Fitzsimons defends swoop
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons told the Dominion Post she is "unrepentent" after ambushing National leader John Key in a shopping mall yesterday.
Fitzsimons went on to say that if the leaders of National and Labour won't go to her, she will go to them.
She gatecrashed Key's walkabout at the Coastlands shopping mall in Paraparaumu to tackle him over statements by his MPs about climate change.
Ambushes haven't been easy to organise this campaign. Details of leaders' daily movements have been carefully managed by their minders to avoid anyone getting advance notice.
9.10am: We paid for Williams' dirt-digging trip, admits PM
A trip to Melbourne by Labour Party president Mike Williams to try and link National leader John Key to historic fraudulent foreign exchange deals was paid for by the party, Prime Minister Helen Clark admitted today.
Mr Williams spent several days examining documents surrounding the so-called H-Fee - two dodgy payments to Equiticorp channelled via sham foreign exchange transactions in 1988.
The PM said yesterday Mr Williams paid for the Melbourne excursion himself, but today admitted on Newstalk ZB that she had since been updated on the situation.
"He (Mr Williams) told me he paid for it, he now tells me he got reimbursed by the party..." she said.
8.00am: Doleful news
Yesterday Labour gazumped the Nats by getting in first with a major employment announcement.
PM Helen Clark said if Labour won the election, anyone who had been in the workforce for at least five years would be able to claim the unemployment benefit, without being means tested, if they were laid off.
However, if the package had a weakness it was that it focused on couples, whilst offering nothing new to single people or workers with a stay-at-home partner.
John Key gets his chance to respond with National's package around noon today.
- NZHERALD STAFF, with NZPA and NEWSTALK ZB
