The opportunity was right there - a fresh produce market surrounded by GST-laden fruit and veggies. And yet there was precisely zero chat from Labour leader Chris Hipkins about his promise to cut the tax on fresh produce.
Hipkins was off to have a good day on Sunday, telling voters they won't have to read his winks and nudges about who he'd work with in Government.
He ruled in Te Pāti Māori and the Greens, saying: "We share a common direction although we do have different ways of getting there."
And he ruled out the king of the comeback - Winston Peters.
"NZ First has become a party more interested in toilets rather than a party focused on what matters most to New Zealanders," Hipkins said.
Peters is running on a contentious policy to prohibit transgender women from women's toilets.
"He's seeking to make trans people the enemy in this campaign," Hipkins said.
Peters said: "That's just humbug. I'm not."
Labour has worked with Peters twice before. Hipkins said of that period that "certainly life was interesting".
Like Peters' last-minute positioning to put last term's abortion reform to the people in a referendum.
"We want the people to speak, not a temporarily in-power group of politicians," Peters said back in 2020.
Peters told Newshub that any changes to abortion legislation will be "by referendum only". And yet despite no party running on a platform of changes to abortion laws, Hipkins turned up the fear factor.
"They are a coalition of fear. The National Party has many candidates who want to roll back women's rights," he said.
National leader Christopher Luxon has ruled out any change to abortion access under a National Government.
And Hipkins twisted the other Chris' 'coalition of chaos' line against him.
"National, ACT and NZ First however are focused on dividing New Zealand. They are a coalition of cuts and chaos that would not be able to get stuff done," Hipkins said.
"I think Chris Hipkins is really desperate and it's sad to see because he's now literally throwing anything at a wall to see what sticks," Luxon responded.
And ACT leader David Seymour said Hipkins is "desperate and dirty".
"They've made a hash of running the country, they've got nothing positive to point to and now they've decided to run a campaign of fear and negativity. It's a truly sad way for him to go out," he said.
Going out is clearly not on Hipkins' agenda.
"Whether you're Māori, Pasifika, Pākehā, gay, straight, born here, migrated here, a man, a woman, trans, young, old or different in your own way, I am in it for you," he said.
And clearly thinking his play today means he's in it to win it
