Former prime minister Bob Hawke has conceded Labor will not win next month's New South Wales election, saying the party would be foolish to think it can.

Addressing the Labor faithful at a campaign launch in the Sydney seat of Kogarah, Mr Hawke was blunt in his election forecast.

"I just plead with you, all of you, go out and work your butts off, not in the expectation we're going to win government - we're not," he said.

Mr Hawke says the Government had made mistakes and it was not "outstandingly successful".

"If you look at this situation that we've got now, we've got to accept the fact that we're not going to win the election, that's not going to be won," he said.

"We'd be foolish if we sat around here and kidded ourselves that we were going to win the election.

"Basically what our job is is to make sure that we hold, win as many seats as we possibly can."

Mr Hawke also criticised the State Opposition, saying that seven weeks out from the election it remains a policy free zone.

He says Labor must regroup for the following poll.

Local Labor MP Cherie Burton did not dispute the assessment.

"As Bob has said we would be kidding ourselves if we said we're going to win government, we're not," she said.