Struggle for hearts of Aussie battlers

Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott. Photo / Getty Images

If there were any doubts about where next month's election will be fought, they were dispelled yesterday by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition leader Tony Abbott.

Launching into the first week of campaigning since the election was called on Saturday for August 21, both headed for marginal seats and Aussie battlers with the message: "I'm on your side."

For Gillard, whose fortunes rose further in a Newspoll published in the Australian, the target was Mackay in central Queensland, a windfall gain for the Government at the last election that hangs by a thread.

Abbott swung into western Sydney, one of the keys that could again unlock the doors of the Lodge in Canberra for the Coalition, and bemoaned the cost of living with a working family in the seat of Lindsay.

No one has quite defined what a "working family" is, but each side of politics claims it for its own.

And for both, the most important of these families live in marginal seats, and especially the marginals of Queensland and New South Wales where the smallest of swings can have the most profound results.

So in Queensland Gillard was hard at work in Mackay, earlier singled out as a potential beneficiary of a new A$200 million ($235.8 million) programme to help build 15,000 affordable homes in regional cities.

Mackay is at the heart of the seat of Dawson, the target of a furious assault by the Opposition, who saw it snatched away in 2007 after more than three decades in safe National Party hands.

Gillard repeated her now-standard line of moving Australia forward via economic, social, health and education policies, while condemning Abbott for preparing to slam the country into reverse.

She was helped by Abbott, who contradicted himself on his promise to leave Labor's industrial laws untouched by a Coalition government, one of the Opposition's most vulnerable points.

After signing a note promising that the Coalition's former WorkChoices laws were "dead, buried and cremated", he later refused to guarantee that existing legislation would never be changed.

Abbott further opened himself to attack by promising that his policies would push down interest rates - a similar promise by former conservative Prime Minister John Howard was followed by six rises - and by pledging never to put a price on carbon.

Gillard is still dithering over carbon pricing, but as Abbott made his promise Labor officials signed a preferences deal with the Greens, under which each party will advise its supporters to give their second preference to the other.

While the deal does not ensure supporters will accept the advice, it is a powerful tool under Australia's voting system, in which votes for unsuccessful candidates are added to the tally of those nominated as second choice.

Green preferences could therefore be crucial in pushing Labor back into power.

Gillard was further boosted by the Newspoll in yesterday's Australian, which widened Labor's two-party preferred lead to the 10-point advantage of 55 per cent to 45 per cent.

This was similar to an earlier Morgan poll and a stronger result than a weekend Galaxy finding of a narrower Labor victory, although another Galaxy poll for the Nine Network put the parties on a 50-50 footing, a result that would ease the Coalition over the line.

In the Newspoll, Gillard topped Abbott by 57 per cent to 27 as preferred prime minister. While the parties were neck-and-neck on economic management, Labor led on climate change, and the Coalition was seen as best able to deal with asylum seekers.

Gillard's response was cautious, predicting swinging polls and a "knife-edge" election result.

Abbott said it was always hard to beat a first-term Government, but that he could win.

Meanwhile, police are investigating shots fired into the home and electorate office of Brent Thomas, Labor candidate in the marginal Liberal seat of Hughes on Sydney's southern fringes. No one was hurt.

In Adelaide, police have charged two men with assault after Liberal candidate Jassmine Wood and a volunteer worker were allegedly attacked while campaigning in Labor-held Hindmarsh electorate at the weekend.

SOUNDBITES

* Opposition leader Tony Abbott on Labor's claims that the old industrial laws will return: "WorkChoices is dead, buried and cremated."
* Annabel Crabb, in ABC online's The Drum: "Personality is important. Why? Because in this campaign, both candidates are rushing to dump everything that might otherwise constitute a reason for voting one way or another."
* Former Labor speechwriter Don Watson in the Australian on Prime Minister Julia Gillard's "moving forward" slogan: "When she started trotting it out I walked away after five minutes. I couldn't stand it any more."
* Opposition frontbencher Scott Morrison, on the latest Newspoll predicting a Gillard win: "It's not MasterChef."
* National Affairs writer Katharine Murphy in the Age on Abbott's campaign strategy: "You want the dynamic to work like this: if you can persuade enough people to hate your opponents more than they fear you, then you are making progress."
* A man dressed in nothing but red budgie smugglers trying to get Abbott's attention at a Melbourne shopping centre: "Do you like the cut of my Speedos, Tony?"
* Gillard on a baby-kissing spree in Brisbane: "Eight weeks! Eight weeks! Heavens! You're a little weenie one, aren't you?"
* In the Age, Jessica Irvine writes in the newspaper's "porkometer" measuring pre-election spending promises: "While the Prime Minister has promised this won't be a big-spending campaign, the pig smells bacon on the air."
* Gillard on population growth: "I will not allow Australia to ever become a country where people say 'it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there'."
* Anonymous voter in the marginal western Sydney seat of Greenway, on ABC radio dismissing fears of a rising population: "More people to party with."
* Abbott, asked on Sky News if he could guarantee his policies would put downward pressure on interest rates, replied: "Absolutely I do." Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard in 2004, before six subsequent rises: "I will guarantee that interest rates are always going to be lower under a coalition government."
* Gillard on the Abbott/Howard promises: "Gee whiz, Tony Abbott must think everybody in Australia was born yesterday."