Let the campaign begin!

The Muldoon speech bubble on the side of Masterton's Sign Factory said it all ? "C'mon Helen, give us an election date!"
The Prime Minister however, remained tight lipped.
Talking to reporters after a public speech at Masterton Town Hall yesterday, Helen Clark's message was clear ? she was not going to name an election date, was not answering questions about possible dates and even refused to comment on whether the government had a date in mind.
"There's one authority on the election date and that's me. We're going for the full term and right now we're making full use of our elected period," she said.
During a day in Wairarapa, which included launching Labour candidate Denise MacKenzie's campaign, Miss Clark managed to hobnob with both officials and people on the street, squeezed in visits to the site of the new Masterton Hospital and Carterton's Paua Shell Factory, and toured Greytown businesses.
During her public address at Masterton Town Hall, attended by more than 200, predominantly elderly people, Miss Clark took the opportunity to talk about what she saw as the fundamental issues for voters in this year's general election.
Voters needed to examine which party could run a strong economy and be prepared to invest back into the things the country needed, she said, such as improved funding for education, healthcare, infrastructure and the elderly.
And voters needed to ask themselves which party they could trust to do what they said they would.
With the economy growing at 4 per cent and the second lowest unemployment rate in the western world, Miss Clark said under a Labour-led government people were holding their heads up and had the dignity of coming home and being able to put food on the table.
On the matter of trust, Miss Clark again said she had kept her promises and would continue to do so.
"When I became prime minister in 1999 I was aware New Zealanders had had many years of feeling let down by governments ... I'm not going to make promises I can't afford to do, but I'm not going to do less than what I promise."
Issues for the elderly were also on the agenda for Miss Clark, telling her audience in Masterton the Labour Party was "absolutely committed" to retaining the national super scheme at 65 per cent of the net average wage.
She said if elected to a third term in government this year, up to 300,000 households would be eligible for a rates rebate, more orthopedic and cataract operations would be performed and a code of practice for companies offering reverse mortgage schemes was also being worked so the "savings poor" would be protected from dodgy dealers.
On tax cuts Miss Clark was unrepentant, saying the Government would not be able to offer all the services it did without the country's tax dollars. "We can't do all those things and offer big across the board tax cuts ? the money's got to come from somewhere," she said.
War and nuclear policies were two issues Miss Clark wanted to make absolutely clear, thundering down the microphone: "As long as I'm prime minister that policy won't be gone by lunch time or any other time and Kiwis won't be sent to wars that aren't justified."
Closing her speech, Miss Clark urged people not to take it for granted that Labour would win. "You might wake up the morning after the election with your worst fears realised."