Labor's confidence is rising in the wake of its attack on coalition costings and Tony Abbott's support for "ludicrous" policies such as buying Indonesian fishing boats.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd headed to the election battleground of western Sydney on Friday, where the latest Galaxy polling shows Labor could lose five crucial seats.
"I haven't heard anyone call a game, whether it's in the NRL or the AFL, over, straight after half time. We've got a long way to go," Mr Rudd said.
Labor strategists say internal polling in key seats is stronger than the published polls, but no one denies the coalition remains in front.
With coalition strategists keen to keep the "stop the boats" message alive, amid a Labor attack on its economic management credentials, the opposition leader launched a new weapon in his fight against people smugglers.
The policy involves buying boats to prevent them being used to smuggle people, more money for specialist Australian Federal Police officers in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia and a boost to Indonesian search and rescue operations.
"We are serious about this. We are not going to be all talk and no action here," Mr Abbott said in Darwin.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the policy raised questions about Mr Abbott's general credibility.
"We have a situation where we have been the underdogs the whole way through and we've got some ground to make up," Mr Burke said of Labor's polling.
"If the opposition keep making announcements like they have made today then we should be able to make up that ground pretty comfortably.
"What they have announced today is ludicrous."
Labor's campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong said she believed the government could hold on to win on September 7.
Senator Wong said her confidence rested in voters' choice between investment in jobs, infrastructure, schools and health or "a series of cuts made by a man who refuses to tell Australians what his real plans are".
Mr Abbott, who will launch the coalition's campaign in Brisbane on Sunday, said he expected final costings would be released in the last week of the campaign.
"But all the time we are releasing interim costings," he said.
"We aren't complacent."
Mr Rudd, who used his visit to western Sydney to announce easier GST paperwork for small business, said the coalition was divided over its parental leave scheme which was aimed at "millionaires who want a bub".
Former Howard government finance minister Nick Minchin said he did not believe the scheme would pass the Senate and as a minister he would have argued against the "entitlement".
Nationals MPs have also expressed concerns about its inequity, especially in regard to women in regional areas.
Mr Abbott said of the policy that "for a certain type of conservative this has been a difficult embrace".
"I expect that if we are elected the parliament of Australia, both houses, will accept the mandate that we have," he said.
The opposition leader started his day in Darwin, taking part in morning physical exercises with troops at Robertson Barracks.
He's expected to head to Brisbane on Saturday to prepare for the coalition launch.
