No launch for Labour

We're not quite sure what to make of this; the Herald reports:

The Labour Party has broken from tradition by deciding not to have an official campaign launch this year.

It will instead mark the start of its campaign in a low-key way - with a policy announcement on savings to media tomorrow in its own caucus room.

The decision not to have a launch event is unusual - the events are considered to provide valuable media and television coverage of a leader speaking to an audience of supporters in the lead up to the election.

The National Party will hold its event on Sunday in Auckland and is expected to focus on Prime Minister John Key.

By contrast, Mr Goff does not feature on any of the party billboards although he does front most of the television advertisements.

Campaign spokesman Grant Robertson said the party wanted to focus its campaign on the policy differences between the parties, rather than a popularity contest.

Is this a tacit acknowledgement by the Labour Party that Phil Goff is unelectable as leader? Or is it perhaps a sign that Phil Goff is not going to figure much post-26 November?

Whatever the explanation, it seems highly odd that Labour has canned its campaign opening. And Grant Robertson is at least candid about the task Labour faces:

He denied it was an attempt to keep Mr Goff - who is struggling to poll well as preferred Prime Minister - out of the public eye. He said Mr Goff was in the television advertisements and would be in the leaders' debates.

"I think everybody can see John Key is an extremely popular Prime Minister. But we want New Zealanders to know they've got a clear choice here, and it's a clear choice about policies."

We agree; there IS a clear choice about policies. Voters can choose between National's less-is-more approach, and see the economy return to surplus in 2014-15. Or they can choose Labour's borrow-and-hope policies, most of which are uncosted, and see the record deficit for the 2011-12 financial year exponentially exceeded over the next three years at least.

And in the meantime, we think that there's every chance that the phrase "We're not trying to keep Phil out of the public eye" will appear on a certain brand of beer's iconic billboards.