The official launch of Labor's federal election campaign has focused on protecting Medicare and boosting small business.
Bill Shorten has declared the election a referendum on Medicare and promised extra help for small business, as he officially launched Labor's campaign two weeks out from the federal election.
The Labor leader was joined by luminaries Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Julia Gillard on Sunday as he unveiled a suite of new promises under the campaign theme "We'll Put People First".
Labor strategists believe one of the key fears of voters - which was first fuelled by Tony Abbott's 2014 budget plan for a GP co-payment - is a privatised Medicare.
Mr Shorten said the government's task force set up to look at private sector involvement in Medicare's payments system and a Productivity Commission review of the "contestability" of all human services delivered by the government amounted to privatisation.
"If you want to know why this election will make a difference - to you, to your family, to Australia's future - I can give you the answer in one word ... Medicare," Mr Shorten told about 500 Labor faithful gathered in Penrith.
Labor has pledged to keep Medicare in public hands, unfreeze the GP rebate, scrap price hikes for medicines and reverse cuts to pathology and diagnostic imaging.
