In Chinese culture, red is the most propitious of the colours.

It's forbidden at funerals. It symbolises happiness, joy and good fortune.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten and Kristina Keneally react after arriving for Labor's Bennelong campaign launch at Ryde on Sunday. Credit:AAP

And so Sunday was a particularly auspicious day for a red-themed campaign launch for Kristina Keneally's run for the Bennelong by-election in more way than one.

Ms Keneally is not only recently surging in the polls, but her campaign had already knocked on 3000 doors, an extraordinary figure for one launched just five days go.