Life looks pretty easy on home turf

THE needs and deeds of women topped Kristina Keneally's agenda as she continued her campaign in the heartland.

THE needs and deeds of women topped Kristina Keneally's agenda as she continued her campaign in the heartland, showing that while her party may be struggling she remains well liked, at least in selected spots.

The embattled NSW Premier made an early start at Royal Randwick, where she joined champion horse trainer Gai Waterhouse to announce a $5 million boost for NSW racing events. The pair quipped briefly over their outfits before praising the achievements of women in the sport.

At the Deli Women and Children's Centre in Sydney's south, Ms Keneally pledged, if re-elected, to spend an extra $15.6m to tackle domestic and sexual violence, including on trials to fit high-risk offenders with GPS tags. And at Punchbowl Early Childhood Centre in the city's southwest she offered voters an extra $17.9m as part of a broader package targeting women and new and working mothers.

The trip took her from the once safe, now marginal, Labor seat of Coogee, through her own south Sydney electorate of Heffron and on to the Labor heartland seats of Bankstown and Granville. It is a measure of Labor's dire predicament that the party is sticking resolutely to its own.

Although shadowed by Labor candidates eager to keep her out of trouble, the Premier was greeted, even in obviously unscripted encounters with generous amity, no doubt lubricated by her good looks and considerable charm.

In the eastern suburb of Clovelly, in the company of Labor's Paul Pearce -- who will need plenty of Keneally dust to keep any of his 7.2 per cent margin -- resident Zoe Reynolds offered commiserative advice. "You soldier on despite everything -- you always look great."

Despite the goodwill, it was clear Labor candidates were under pressure. In Ms Keneally's seat, which has a high ethnic population, one constituent mentioned the Liberal candidate Patrice Pandeleos openly to the Premier, pointing out that Ms Pandeleos was both Greek and pretty.