What's in a name? Labour's congress and ACT's rally fail to find election-year reset

Analysis - For reasons known only to Labour's rulebook, the party's annual conference is rebranded a "congress" in election years.

The semantic flourish is supposed to signal a shift in focus to members, with no time allocated for the constitutional quibbling or sub-committee selections of other years.

Instead, congress is reserved for campaign planning and strategising, along with a healthy dose of hype.

Presumably the former was thrashed out behind closed doors, although not a single duck-sized horse was sighted.

The hype did eventually make an appearance, even if a little late in the weekend.

About 500 positive people poured into the capital's convention centre on Sunday, where kapa haka group Te Pū Toi Kura shook the red-washed room.

The crowd bellowed and cheered at appropriate moments, brandishing placards.

But beneath the noise lay a tepidity and sense of caution which the party has struggled to shrug.

The more muted feel on Saturday could perhaps be blamed on the wild weather having delayed or disrupted travel plans.

But there was no such excuse for those on stage. The speeches open to media (and there were not many) were forward-looking, but light on substance.

Barbara Edmonds promised she'd make the numbers add up but would not say how. Carmel Sepuloni spent her time mostly attacking National.

Leader Chris Hipkins gave the most impressive address of the event, a polished and passionate pitch on the Sunday, inviting those at home to consider whether their lives were better or worse than three years ago.

It was an effective line, but missed the obvious follow-up: would it be any better under Labour?

Hipkins promised a "practical, funded plan" ready to start the day after the election, but details were thin on the ground.

In yet another symbol of the surface level change on offer, the party's much-thrashed slogan, "jobs, health, homes," was rebooted as, wait for it, "your job, your health, your home."

The headline policy announcement fell squarely in the first category, with a promise to ramp up support for employers to take on apprentices.

The pledge is well-worn territory, similar to that promised by Hipkins at his 2023 Congress, and on brand for Labour as the party of workers.

It went down well with members but could hardly be called inspired or inspiring. It seems unlikely people will still be discussing Apprenticeship Boost by the end of the week.

Contrast that with National's embrace of KiwiSaver at its conference a week earlier, which kept the commentariat chattering for days.

Labour has been in desperate need of a gearshift, with its year defined to date by an almost belligerent policy paucity.

The party began to ease into campaign mode a fortnight ago with its promise of a public transport fare cap.

But initial polling suggests its concentration on the cost of living has not quite landed as Labour might have hoped.

While Tuesday's 1News-Verian survey delivered victory for the left, it also came with a five-point plunge for Labour.

The coalition has been quick to characterise Labour as a low rent Oprah: "You get a free GP visit! You get a free prescription! You get a free maternity scan!"

Labour will be worried that relentless narrative is starting to stick.

No surprise that was the line National immediately reached for in response to the apprenticeship commitment on Sunday: who's paying?

A few weekends back, Nicola Willis called a media conference at Parliament for the sole purpose of tallying up the cost of Labour's promises, almost-promises and maybe-promises.

Inevitable parallels were drawn with Steven Joyce's 2017 "fiscal hole" claim (which fell apart on closer inspection), but the better comparison is with John Key's devastating "show me the money" riposte of 2011.

Edmonds can promise again and again that she can be relied on to find the money, but until she explains how, that demand will resonate.

Asked on Sunday how Labour would balance its books, Hipkins responded: "You will see."

When? "In due course."

This year's polls have proved dangerously reassuring to the red team.

Labour has steadily clawed back support since its 27 percent trouncing and now comfortably holds the title of most popular party, averaging about 34 percent this year.

But that buoyancy hides a fragility in the numbers and an untapped despondency in the wider electorate.

Despite Labour's primacy, most polls still consign it to the opposition benches, with New Zealand First's surge keeping the coalition in the conversation.

The public pessimism is also captured in the numbers of undecided voters, as well as the emergence of the Opportunity party as a potential player.

All of that is to say that Labour is as much afflicted by the wider malaise as National is.

And the weekend's congress, whatever its name, will do nothing to shift that.

ACT's David Seymour: 'From today, we're out campaigning too!'

The ACT Party also held its election year gathering on Sunday, also eschewing the "conference" moniker and associated procedural wonkery.

Its aversion to over-consultation extends even to its own members, meaning pesky matters of policy are restricted to the board and caucus.

As such, ACT bills its annual meeting as a "rally" - a ticketed tub-thumping, open to all, not just the membership.

The set-up mimicked political events more common in the United States, with ACT leader David Seymour standing in front of a giant New Zealand flag and surrounded by seated supporters.

As with Labour, the new style nodded towards the need for a shift, even if the party did not necessarily deliver on that front.

Yes, there were energetic chants and slick production.

But the featured policies fell in familiar ground, fleshing out long-held promises to slash ministries and crack down on beneficiaries.

ACT's polling woes are more immediately apparent than those of its distant parent.

The party has slowly shed support this term, outperformed by its coalition partner New Zealand First in every single poll this year.

Twelve months ago, ACT was consistently registering around 9 percent - just above its 2023 election result. Now, it is averaging closer to 7 percent.

Why? In a response fit for a job interview, Seymour claims he's just too hardworking. Too much time doing the mahi, not enough promoting it.

His speech rattled through ACT's key accomplishments, then noted all those he had not mentioned, and in doing so, mentioned them.

It was a neat rhetorical device but also sounded a little like pleading: some credit would be nice!

Seymour presented ACT as the coalition's handbrake on "nutty stuff", wielding an argument well-used by New Zealand First.

We stopped three taxes, he said. You think the LNG facility is dumb? Just wait till you hear their other crazy ideas. (Not that he actually divulged them, citing Cabinet confidentiality).

Seymour has previously suggested ACT was keeping its powder dry, waiting till closer to voting day before clearing its throat.

Supposedly, that wait is now over: "From today, we're out campaigning too."

ACT has a healthy war chest to dip into, with $1.3m in publicly declared large donations this year.

That's more than National ($730k) and NZ First ($500k) combined, or the entire opposition bloc (Labour $180k, Greens $90k, TPM $40k).

One of Seymour's regrets of the 2023 campaign was that ACT peaked too soon, recording double-digit support all year, only for it to slip away in the final weeks.

He does not want to make that same mistake again. But such observations often only become clear with hindsight.

Timing is much trickier to stage-manage than a conference slash rally slash congress.