Former prime minister Bob Hawke reckons Labor can win the election even though its still the underdog.
Labor politicians played the underdog card repeatedly on Saturday as the coalition said the latest opinion polls proved Kevin Rudd's honeymoon with voters was over.
The Fairfax Media/Nielsen poll showed opposition leader Tony Abbott was more trustworthy than Mr Rudd and put the coalition on 52 per cent to Labor's 48 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Labor's primary vote was down two to 37 per cent while the coalition improved by two points to 46 per cent.
A Galaxy poll estimates Labor's two-party preferred vote in Queensland would be 44 per cent to the coalition's 56 per cent.
Mr Rudd said Mr Abbott has put attention into writing his victory speech already.
"I don't think people like that sort of arrogance myself," he told reporters on Saturday.
"We are just through week one of a five-week election campaign and that remains the case. I don't gild the lily about any of that so we remain the underdog."
Coalition campaign spokesman Christopher Pyne said Kevin Rudd's honeymoon with voters has "come to a shuddering halt".
"The Australian public are starting to remember all the reasons why they wanted him gone in the first place," he told Sky News.
He says the election will be about whether people believe they can afford to re-elect Labor for another three years after the last six years of chaos and dysfunction and division and hopeless economic management.
Mr Abbott says winning an election is like climbing Mt Everest and he'll let others obsess about the polls.
"I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing every day since becoming leader of the opposition.... focusing on how to reduce the Australian peoples' cost of living pressures and job security," he told reporters at Nhulunbuy in north east Arnhem Land on Saturday.
Mr Hawke told an election campaign launch he was "absolutely bloody staggered by the cheek of this bloke Abbott" .
He said history showed Labor performed better on economic management than the coalition and that it could still win the election.
"Theirs (the coalition's) is a record of hopeless mismanagement."
Deputy Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the real difference between the two parties would become clearer next week after the leader's debate on Sunday.
"What we will see when the campaign really begins after tomorrow night is the diversity between Labor, which is concerned about the future, which has positive plans, and Tony Abbott's relentless negativity," he said.
Greens say the polls show Mr Abbott might get control of the Senate and reckon that would be a disaster for Australia.
