THE State Government says its $200million pre-Christmas spending has strengthened its popularity and Premier David Bartlett has signalled there is more to come.
A Labor source confirmed yesterday that internal polling showed the Government's position had markedly improved since the devastating November EMRS poll, but the party was still the underdog heading to the March 20 election.
The November poll showed the Liberals comfortably ahead of Labor in every electorate in the state and Mr Bartlett's personal approval down to 28 per cent.
Despite launching personal attacks on Opposition Leader Will Hodgman and Greens leader Nick McKim yesterday, Mr Bartlett said Labor would not indulge in a dirty election campaign.
The Government and Opposition yesterday released their agenda for the future, but while the Opposition said it was the official launch of its election campaign, the Government denied it was in election mode.
Liberal leader Will Hodgman said his party was "ready to go", saying he would use the lead-up to March 20 to release policies on tax reform, health, education, infrastructure and state development.
"I think Tasmanians deserve to know over the next 76 days what their political parties are saying and what they're going to do," Mr Hodgman said.
In contrast, Premier David Bartlett unveiled his "back to basics" agenda for 2010, flagging further spending on front-line services but said it was not the start of his campaign.
"I believe Tasmanians don't want to see a Government in election mode until the election is called, when we go into caretaker mode," Mr Bartlett said.
"The business of Government has to go on, just because there's an election on the horizon shouldn't stop us from making key decisions."
Providing no detail, Mr Bartlett said the 2010 agenda would focus on "the things that matter to most Tasmanians": jobs, health, education and housing.
Mr Bartlett refused to say when he would call the election, which must be done at least four weeks before March 20.
Mr Bartlett accused Mr Hodgman of seeing the premiership as "some sort of birthright" because of his family's political history and said although Mr McKim had "cut his pony tail off to look more like me", he was "a wolf in sheep's clothing".
Both Mr Hodgman and Mr McKim said they were not surprised by Mr Bartlett's attacks.
"That shows that Mr Bartlett is more worried about me and less about setting down a clear policy agenda for Tasmanians," Mr Hodgman said.
The Liberal and Greens leaders committed to running positive campaigns.
Mr McKim said Tasmanians were sick of politicians bickering.
"They want to know what we stand for and the Greens are ready to respond and to deliver," he said.
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