PM ready to tackle John Key head on

The election year marathon begins in earnest next week as Prime Minister Helen Clark and National leader John Key go head-to-head with speeches that both hope will spring them out of the blocks first.

Both leaders are keeping their topics under wraps to avoid giving away a tactical advantage - but anticipation is building that each will reveal some new message or policy.

Mr Key will on Tuesday afternoon touch on a specific topic - which remains a mystery - as he fronts up to a partisan party audience in Ellerslie.

Helen Clark is set to talk early on Wednesday to a Waitakere business audience about the direction New Zealand needs to take to capitalise on several years of growth.

It is a notable break from normal for her to make a January speech, and Victoria University lecturer in New Zealand politics and political leadership Jon Johansson said the strategy could only be seen as an improvement.

"It's about time that the Prime Minister varied her tactics," he told the Weekend Herald. "She should have done it, in my view, any number of years previously - it's about time she finally understood that you shouldn't cede the political ground at the beginning of the year."

Helen Clark has had a highly visible start to election year, although much of the news coverage has been related to her close involvement with the funeral for Sir Edmund Hillary.

However, after the first Cabinet meeting of the year this week, she conducted several upbeat interviews and emphasised she had told her team to be positive and disciplined as it seeks a fourth term in Government.

Mr Key has been preparing for his party's three-day caucus in Rotorua next week and for his annual state of the nation speech, and National has been notably wary of mounting attacks relating to the economy because it does not want to appear to be talking economic conditions down.

Dr Johansson said Helen Clark needed to "shake things up" because she was on the back foot as she entered election year. Her traditional speech at the opening of Parliament in February did not lend itself to the kind of political opportunity she needed to exploit this year.

"She's got to take enormous risks this year if she has any chance whatsoever of competing. It's not just this speech, it's going to be the Budget, it's going to be policy innovation."

Finance Minister Michael Cullen yesterday launched a scathing attack on Mr Key's performance over the past week, criticising him for being inconsistent in various interviews.

The attack was a clear signal that Labour is likely to leave much of the sniping about Mr Key to Dr Cullen.