It’s been the worst kept secret in New Zealand the past week – well, maybe not as badly kept as those National Party policies which got left in the Beehive café.

Prime Minister Helen Clark announced this afternoon the election would be on 8 November.

The tone of Clark’s announcement was markedly less defensive and shrill than she has been over recent months. The announcement was preceded by a speech which was more like an election-eve televised address, aimed at undecided voters while reminding Labour’s true believers what the party was there for.

The key word in the often rather repetitive address was “trust” and this became rather more laboured as the speech wore on. (Any puns in that sentence are all intentional.)

“Trust” is a little difficult to swing when you’ve had to suspend your Minister of Foreign Affairs because of undeclared donations from big business backers, but Clark is perhaps on safer ground here than some might think.

The Winston Peters’ funding row has become an issue for political junkies. It will have no impact on post-election policies. In any case, any minds which remain to be changed about Peters must now be few and far between.

Clark knows the hurdles Key has to leap for the very good reason she had to hurdle them herself.

In 1999 Labour had to convince the electorate it could be trusted not to turn the country upside down again as it had done the last time it was in office. New Zealanders had had enough of radical changed in any direction.

Which was why Labour at the time took a “small targets” approach – in as many as 18 different areas its promises were that it would “review” or hold inquiries into those issues. These included key areas such as monetary policy, telecommunications, and tax.

The party had some flagship policies to remind voters it was going to be a Labour government – a new top tax rate, re-nationalisation of accident compensation, and replacement of the Employers Contracts Act were the three key ones.

Key has to do the same. The message that the country is sliding behind the rest of the world economically has got through to people.
Too many families have gaps at the Christmas Dinner table because their young ones have settled on the other side of the world: they also learn from those relatives, and other friends overseas, about how much better take-home pay is in other countries.

Economically, the biggest beneficiary of the largest boom of the past 10 years has been the state sector, and this is National’s opportunity.
On those issues, Key and his party have successfully captured voters’ attention.

But at the same time Key has to allay fears National will not turn the country upside down to achieve better economic performance.

That is why Labour would be hammering the trust issue anyway, regardless of Key’s occasional mis-speaks, the somewhat maladroit comments from Maurice Williamson a few weeks back, or the sneaky taping of National MPs by left wing activists.

It was certainly hammered by Clark today. And its game on now. National can’t afford any more slip ups which raise the trust issue.