KEY POINTS:
Interviewed on TVNZ's Agenda yesterday, Helen Clark made mention of Labour's "strong, proven leadership" not once, not twice, but four times.
At a National Party rally in Upper Hutt, John Key was repeating his promises to "make communities safer" and bring change "that takes New Zealand forward".
Into
the final week of the election campaign, and the leaders have started talking in little more than slogans. There is now little time left to do much else.
For Clark and Key, the remaining days are about boiling down their party's message into little more than sound bites and repeating them relentlessly until the shutters come down on Friday night.
Clark will concentrate on Labour "heartland" such as West and South Auckland. Labour not only has to win votes, it must ensure it does not lose them through its traditional vote staying at home.
Key has visits scheduled for Rotorua and Tauranga, before a final whistle-stop tour up and down the country on Thursday and Friday.
The final push will be reinforced by advertising, a chunk of which the respective parties have held back to play on the hopes and fears of voters in the week before polling day. A new, harder-hitting Labour advertisement was screened last night, showing a mother feeding her baby and saying: "I can't trust you, Mr Key."
Much of the reasoning for the frantic last-minute activity is that at least a quarter of all voters will not yet have made up their minds.
Clark believes the "soft mood for change" of a month or two ago has hardened towards retaining the status quo.
But the pressure is more on her than Key. She had to get the new week off to a strong start by bringing closure to Labour's botched attempt to destroy Key last week.
Clark's answer was to go wall-to-wall across the media yesterday, being interviewed at length on four separate television programmes.
The studios were different; the message was the same. Labour had that strong, proven leadership, while National was "amateur hour". Labour had a plan to get the country out of economic crisis; National didn't.
Key's core message is that National is focused on "the issues that matter", whereas Labour is mired in distractions.
Both Clark and Key will stress these messages during the two televised leaders' debates tonight and on Wednesday night.
While the leaders will undertake intensive preparation, these debates are less important than the first held three weeks ago. Key showed then he can foot it with Clark. He hasn't put a foot wrong since. Clark won't be doing so now.
A draw looks the most likely outcome.