Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott shared a moment of togetherness on indigenous affairs on Saturday ahead of their upcoming clash in the leaders debate.
The opposition leader has announced that former Labor president Warren Mundine would head an advisory council on indigenous policy if the coalition government is elected a bid to improve the lives of indigenous people.
But the prime minister said indigenous policy should be completely bipartisan and it was his ambition to ensure closing the gap with indigenous Australians is taken out of the political ruck.
It was less congenial elsewhere.
A Fairfax Media/Nielsen poll showed Mr 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.
Coalition campaign spokesman Christopher Pyne said it proved Mr Rudd's honeymoon with voters had "come to a shuddering halt" as people remembered what he was like.
Mr Rudd said it was early days yet, even though Tony Abbott was already writing his victory speech.
"I don't think people like that sort of arrogance myself," he said on Saturday.
Deputy Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the real difference between the two parties would become clearer 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.
Mr Rudd hopes to show Labor would be Australia's best economic managers and he wants Mr Abbott to outline coalition plans for budget cuts and what, if anything, will be done to the GST.
The coalition, which denies plans to change the GST, maintains they manage the economy best.
This claim outraged former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, who told an election campaign launch history showed Labor managed the economy best and he was "absolutely bloody staggered by the cheek of this bloke Abbott."
Foreign Minister Bob Carr says Labor will win thanks to its progressive education policy.
"Let's make this election ... a referendum on how we continue Labor's work on lifting the standards in the schools of Australia," he said.
The coalition used two Labor candidates who've made headlines for the wrong reasons to set a test of Mr Rudd's sincerity about party reform.
The challenger in the safe Labor Victorian seat of Hotham, Geoff Lake, has been forced again to apologise for abusing a fellow councillor during a meeting in 2002.
And Labor candidate for Kennedy, Ken Robertson, told the Courier Mail Mr Abbott was a bigot who wants to bring back the White Australia policy.
Mr Rudd said he'd ask Labor's national secretariat to report on both Mr Lake and Mr Robertson's behaviour.
Meanwhile, One Nation candidate Stephanie Banister, who was ridiculed after referring to Islam as a country in a television interview, has withdrawn from the election campaign.
And the Australian Greens launched their Victorian election campaign vowing to make history with the return of Melbourne MP Adam Bandt to the lower house and a second Victorian senate seat.
