Aust leaders hit the ground gunning

CANBERRA - This morning Australia awakes to a race for the nation's conservative heartland as its political leaders try to eclipse each other on the issues that will decide who rules for the next three years.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott have both hit the ground running after Saturday's announcement of an August 21 election, cramming their campaign into what will be a ruthless five weeks.

Gillard has predicted a "robust" debate, Abbott a "filthy" campaign.

Yesterday, amid the leaders' acerbic opening shots of what will increasingly become a presidential-style election, South Australian Liberal candidate Jassmine Wood and a volunteer worker were punched by two men critical of Abbott's policies on asylum seekers.

Campaigning in Queensland, Gillard portrayed Abbott as yesterday's man, a deceiver who would resurrect former conservative Prime Minister John Howard's reviled WorkChoices industrial laws, and a leader who drove by "looking in the rearview mirror".

In Canberra Abbott said Gillard was not fit to govern, tainted by what he claimed was Labor's three years of failure and shadowed by the "political corpse" of ousted former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

As the opposing campaigns opened, polls and internet gambling put Gillard ahead.

A Galaxy poll in News Ltd Sunday tabloids said that while Labor's primary vote had slipped, the Government still held an election-winning two-party preferred lead of 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Gillard's 55 per cent to 32 per cent lead over Abbott as preferred prime minister was further boosted by the poll's finding that almost one in five Coalition supporters preferred Gillard to lead the nation, the Sunday Herald Sun said.

An earlier Morgan poll, released on Friday, also reported a fall in the Government's primary vote, but said that the Government led the Opposition by 54.5 per cent to 45.5 per cent on a two-party preferred vote.

And punters, whose bets have accurately predicted the outcome of earlier elections, remain firmly behind Labor: the odds at Centrebet, sportsbet.com and Sportingbet were all strongly in Gillard's favour.

But the Greens, who are expected to perform strongly and possibly gain outright balance of power in the Senate, will be crucial to the Government.

With Labor support weakening on key issues such as climate change, Gillard will need Green preferences to overcome the Coalition's lead in primary votes.

Both parties will also be carefully targeting their campaigns, heavily focused on Queensland and New South Wales, where the election could be decided. Almost two-thirds of Labor's most vulnerable seats are in Queensland and NSW, while the Coalition's fewer key marginal electorates are fairly evenly divided between the mainland states.

Both leaders will also be keeping a close eye on Western Australia where Labor has been struggling on the mining tax row, asylum seekers and the state's exclusion from federal hospital reform funding because of the Liberal Government's refusal to accept Canberra's preconditions.

And Gillard has to overcome widespread distaste at the dumping of Rudd.

Yesterday's Galaxy poll confirmed earlier findings: while generally happy with Gillard, 57 per cent of respondents - including 44 per cent of Labor supporters - said Rudd's treatment would hurt the Government at the ballot box.

Abbott yesterday pressed home his attack on the coup, slamming "the brutal bloody execution in the dead of night" of Rudd by his own party, repeating his concern that a democratically-elected prime minister could be deposed by union and factional bosses.

But both parties are focusing heavily on the economy. Labor is pressing its success in saving Australia from the worst of the global financial crisis, its claims of disciplined and prudent fiscal management, and its forecast return to surplus in 2013.

Abbott is attacking a Government that he says is wracking up debt at the rate of A$100 million ($122 million) a day, and which he described as marked by "spin and incompetence".

Gillard and the unions are warning Australia that Abbott intends bringing back the WorkChoices industrial laws that played a large role in ending John Howard's run of almost 12 years, accusing him of "camouflaging" his intentions.

Abbott denies this and yesterday promised not to touch Labor's existing laws for the first three years of a Coalition Government - a pledge undermined by his refusal to discuss second-term intentions and by Shadow Workplace Relations Minister Eric Abetz, who told ABC radio the laws would be "tweaked" if the Opposition won power.

In the coming days both will also be hammering hard on climate change and the environment, health, education, and the extremely vexed question of border control and asylum seekers.

Abbott yesterday linked asylum seekers with population growth, an issue that has also grown in significance following Treasury projections of a population of 36 million by 2050 and Rudd's earlier enthusiasm for a "big Australia".

Faced with soaring house prices, congested cities and groaning infrastructure, Australians have recoiled from the prospect of another 15 million or so people. Population growth has also been linked by many to immigration and asylum seekers, a linkage of growing importance especially in crucial areas such as the key marginal seats of western Sydney.

The linkage is being exploited by Abbott, furthered by the troubles Gillard is suffering in gaining support for a regional processing centre for asylum seekers in East Timor.

The Government has been hurt by its failure to stem a flood of boats from Indonesia, forcing a new policy similar to Howard's "Pacific solution" of detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Gillard has been trying to neutralise the asylum seeker issue by minimising the differences between Government and the Opposition - which has an even tougher line - and yesterday moved to defuse perceptions of a "big Australia" Labor.

She said she did not believe in pushing policy levers into top gear to drive population growth as high as possible, but instead supported a sustainable Australia that preserved its environment and quality of life.

"Friends, I will not allow Australia to ever become a country of which it is said, 'it's a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there'."

Gillard also announced a A$200 million three-year programme to help build 15,000 affordable homes for "working families" in regional cities.