On a day when the polls are looking shaky for the Labor party, Julia Gillard has vowed it is time to get 'real'.
Apparently she has not been entirely herself up until now, but in the face of sliding support has vowed to take a more aggressive approach.
Meanwhile opposition leader Tony Abbott admits he has softened his style, presumably for similar reasons.
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The Greens have launched their campaign, as the prime minister seeks to down-play her own widely-criticised environmental plans: to have a citizens' assembly on climate change.
In more policy announcements the Labor Party has promised that school principals would be given more responsibility over their budgets if it wins the election.
Going one better, Tony Abbott has promised he would sort out the asylum seeker problem on day one, should he win office, putting in an early call to Nauru.
The Labor party hit back with pledges of government assistance for the cost of raising older teenagers if re-elected.
To tourism, and on a day when new figures revealed a marked dip in the tourist dollar, Tony Abbott has defended a limited coalition plan to boost the sector, claiming it is necessarily curtailed due to budgetary limitations.
And there were more headaches for Labor from the mining sector, as around 250 companies have launched a new anti-mining tax advertising campaign.
Finally, as Julia Gillard dismissed as "political chatter" speculation that outgoing Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner was the source of her party's leaks, colleagues were taking no chances, apparently steering clear of Kevin Rudd, who has had not visits from his erstwhile colleagues.
