Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has given an impassioned stump speech in north Queensland, declaring Labor the party of nation building and saying the coalition's default is to tear everything down.
Addressing Monday night's launch of the campaign for the seat Dawson, Mr Rudd told supporters they were in for the fight of their lives to retain government.
But in what was a rallying speech to those at Mackay's Virgin Australia Stadium, he said Labor was the party that has always looked "beyond the horizon".
Citing the Labor government's Better Schools and DisabilityCare reforms, its National Broadband Network (NBN) and health infrastructure such as Medicare Locals, Mr Rudd said: "We lay the foundations with the infrastructure, the big concepts, the great visions for the future.
"We build the house up, the other mob then try and tear the house down," he said, with an energy and conviction that has so far been lacking during the campaign.
"That's the difference. As Paul Keating once famously said, 'We make the history, they try and unmake the history'."
Labor and its candidate Bronwyn Taha are hoping to unseat George Christensen in Dawson, with the Nationals MP holding the seat by just 2.4 per cent.
Mr Rudd arrived at the low key event with wife Therese, daughter Jessica and granddaughter Josephine, and can of XXXX in hand, he made a point of meeting each of the 100-odd supporters.
"Friends this is going to be the fight of our lives in every seat around the country," he told them during his 15-minute speech.
"Those we hold and which we may be defending on a thin margin. Those we don't hold like Dawson, which they only hold by a thin margin."
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