Prime Minister Helen Clark has taken a potshot at National's campaign, claiming she is getting out and pressing the public flesh while John Key prefers to be "behind closed doors".
She appeared to be seizing on recent campaigning by the National leader, such as his trip on Thursday
to Dunedin, where he toured a factory without the media allowed in, and then released a policy to his own supporters, before flying out of town.
The Prime Minister made the criticism yesterday while at a "community meeting" in a Samoan church in Christchurch that was decked out in Labour colours and packed with her own supporters and loyal unionists.
"I think our Labour campaigns do see us out and about meeting large groups, not being afraid to engage with the public," she told reporters. "So that's our style of campaigning, and I think there is a stark contrast with what others are doing."
At the church meeting, she said of National and Mr Key: "Sometimes they get brave enough to walk through a shopping mall, but the rest of the time they are hiding behind closed doors."
Mr Key spent time among community groups in Auckland yesterday, and his spokesman said Helen Clark's claim was simply false. "Virtually every place we go in New Zealand we have a walkabout or some other thing like that."
