Never work with kids or animals, as the saying goes, but a confident Tony Abbott took them both on as he launched into the final week of campaign 2013.
With a suite of fresh opinion polls heralding good news for the coalition, the opposition leader spent most of Saturday in regional Queensland, promising a coalition government would serve people of the bush better than Labor.
"You will have in a new government, people who understand country Australia, who understand agriculture ... and we will do the right thing by country Australia," Mr Abbott told a handful of local graziers at a cattle property outside Rockhampton.
In the heart of beef country and in the seat of Flynn, an electorate held by the Nationals with a 3.6 per cent margin, Mr Abbott said regional Australia would be a focus of a coalition government.
"It better be," a local called out.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
With steaks sizzling on the barbecue and amid a crowd wearing Akubras, Mr Abbott told locals he was feeling good about the campaign to date.
"I think it's going alright but you just never know. A week is a long time," he told Leanne, a self-confessed Abbott fan.
He told reporters he expected "low" politics from Labor in the countdown to September 7 and the last week would be tough.
But he says people would get more of the same from the coalition camp.
"I am very conscious of the need to run a very steady campaign over the last seven days," Mr Abbott said.
"The last thing I want to do over the next seven days is give anyone an excuse to vote against the coalition."
Mr Abbott walked through the stockyards where fourth-generation property owner Darren Childs pointed out his prize bull.
He also chatted with local kids, shaking hands and explaining a government he leads would shore up their future.
The coalition campaign also stopped in Rockhampton, the seat of Capricornia, which Liberal candidate Michelle Landry hopes to take from retiring Labor MP Kirsten Livermore.
He championed the coalition's promise to scrap the carbon tax at a trucking company.
Earlier in Townsville, Mr Abbott pledged $20 million for the flood-proofing of a local road, in the seat of Herbert, where incumbent Liberal MP Ewen Jones was on hand to express his gratitude.
Mr Abbott is expected to begin Sunday in Melbourne for media interviews, before travelling to Sydney.
Father's Day in the Abbott household will include a "special dinner" with eldest daughter Louise returning from overseas, but otherwise it will be "normal campaigning", the opposition leader said.
