Prime Minister Tony Abbott says a by-election in Kevin Rudd's former seat of Griffith will be a test of his first days in office.
Despite being re-elected in September, two-time Labor prime minister Mr Rudd resigned from parliament triggering a by-election in the inner southern suburbs of Brisbane electorate, due to be held early next year.
The Liberal National Party will run the same candidate who took on Mr Rudd at the federal election - former Australian Medical Association boss Dr Bill Glasson.
"It will, to some extent, be the voters passing judgment on the early days of the new government," Mr Abbott told Fairfax Media radio in Brisbane on Monday.
The prime minister said the by-election would also be a judgment on how Mr Rudd left voters "in the lurch" and the quality of the candidates.
He said Dr Glasson was a "terrific bloke who doesn't want to do it for himself, but wants to do it for the people of Griffith".
Labor is still to select its candidate in the seat which it holds with a margin of seven per cent.
