O'Farrell springs final surprise

BARRY O'Farrell has launched a tactical shift from his slow-moving campaign to a blitzkrieg ground offensive.

BARRY O'Farrell has launched a tactical shift from his slow-moving and aloof campaign to a blitzkrieg ground offensive designed to overpower Kristina Keneally in the final days before the poll.

In a move kept under wraps, the Liberal leader trumped the Premier's one bus "Fairness for Families" tour with four buses that will fan out across NSW's 93 electorates by Saturday.

"The 'Real Change for NSW' bus tour will hit every seat, fight for every vote and listen to every voice between now and election day," Mr O'Farrell said.

While Mr O'Farrell will spend the next 48 hours in one bus, the other three buses will carry his shadow ministers to electorates as far away as Murray-Darling in western NSW, Monaro in the south and Tweed in the north.

Yesterday, Mr O'Farrell laid siege to 11 Labor heartland electorates in western, outer western and outer southwest Sydney.

His strategy mirrors US President Barack Obama's "30 states in 30 hours" blitz at the close of the 2008 presidential election, and Tony Abbott's effort last year.

It appears designed to deny Ms Keneally oxygen in the final stages of her own tour, which has been running for several weeks, and to sway voters in the run-up to Saturday's poll, which Mr O'Farrell is expected to win in a landslide.

Ms Keneally continues to cram a lot into what are likely to be the dying days of her premiership. She started yesterday with a brief trip to a mine in the Illawarra, where she again delivered her standard "don't give Barry O'Farrell a blank cheque" speech. Next stop was a childcare centre to announce a $8 million scheme to help grandparent carers, followed by a trip to a nature reserve to boast of Labor's opposition to duck hunting, and a visit to a high school.

Worthy causes all, but with just a few days to go and against the backdrop of her opposite number's statewide bus blitzkrieg, Ms Keneally's election campaign suddenly seemed tired and stale.

Despite the Premier's insistence she has spent much of her bus tour meeting up with members of her team, the inescapable fact is that her campaign has essentially been a one-woman show -- a situation forced upon her following the scandals and personnel failures of the past four years.

By contrast, Mr O'Farrell is surrounded by a senior team on his bus tour, giving it the look of a unit that is ready to govern.

"The bus tour has always been part of the out plan, which was to cover all electorates," he said, denying he was stealing Ms Keneally's ideas. "It's clear she has no intention of engaging all electorates, fighting for all electorates and giving her supporters in all electorates (the chance) to see her and her team.

"They have a team that they can't present.

"All campaigns seek to finish with momentum. It was always about trying to ensure there was a strong finish."

Ms Keneally has remained relentlessly energetic and good-humoured throughout the campaign, and is still warmly greeted by most people she meets along her regular streetwalks.

But the next 48 hours will be nothing more than a farewell tour for the first female NSW Premier.