A full 3 News political poll shows Helen Clark is back up off the canvas, while John key has taken a significant blow, in the very week he tried to land one using tax cuts.
The poll covers one of Labour's darkest hours, the opening of the treasury books, plus a time when sharemarkets were plunging - so it is a significant vote.
So, after 18 months of misery in the polls, Labour is back on its feet .
“I've always thought that as we got closer to election day people would begin on those big choices," Clark said.
Labour has been 12 points behind in the 3 News Poll since March 2007.
Now that gap has halved to six, meaning it may not be exit stage left after all.
National had expected some narrowing of the gap and will want to stop the slide turning into a collapse.
With economies everywhere in crisis we asked voters who do you trust to best manage New Zealand for the next three years?
Labour and Michael Cullen just won that battle with 42.7 percent.
National and Bill English were a close second, with 41.2 percent.
Clark says people still trust her team.
But this week Labour opened the books revealing dreadful numbers - years of deficits to come. That was slap bang in the middle of our polling period.
And Key cannot believe the result.
But there is no denying Clark is already conjuring up a come back and Key may not be quite so full of beans from this point on.
3 News