He told a wholly sympathetic group of unionists Mr Abbott was on another planet with his claims that his parental leave scheme was comparable to the introduction of the aged pension, a century-old signature Labor social reform.
Buoyed by a solid performance in the leader's debate in Brisbane on Wednesday, a fired up Mr Rudd said he had been written off too many times to call it quits.
"This is the fight of our lives. People have written me off before. I have a habit of coming back. I have been written off more times than I can remember," he said.
In the rousing breakfast event at the Geelong Trades and Labour Council, the prime minister blasted opposition leader Tony Abbott, saying his parental leave scheme "stinks to high heaven".
He asked those present whether they thought it fair that Mr Abbott's scheme provided $75,000 for millionaires to have babies and its $5.5 billion annual cost exceeded federal spending on childcare.
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"His rolled gold scheme for millionaires, his paid parental leave scheme, he values more than childcare payments to every Australian working family.
Is that fair?" he said. Mr Rudd was campaigning in the Victorian seat of Corangamite, held for Labor by Darren Cheeseman with a wafer-thin margin under half a per cent and in Corio, safely held by Richard Marles.
Mr Rudd denied he was playing the class war card. He said what he was on about Mr Abbott's priorities.
"Mr Abbott says he can find $5.5 billion for his paid parental leave scheme which provides benefits for millionaires but can't find $500 million to invest in the future of the Australian car industry," he said.
In another campaign event at Torquay, Mr Rudd announced a series of measures aimed at reducing administrative costs and red tape for small business.
Then it was off to the Williamstown dockyard to inspect the Australian navy's largest largest ever vessel, the first of two landing helicopter dock vessels which will be named HMAS Canberra.
Mr Rudd will if re-elected speed up construction of new navy vessels to provide ongoing work for the skilled workforce.
Mr Rudd's roll was marred by a solitary event - the makeup artist who did the leader's faces ahead of the debate on Wednesday wrote on Facebook that Mr Abbott was by far the nicer person.
Mr Rudd put it down to misunderstanding, he says he doesn't like having makeup applied at any time, let alone minutes before such an important event when he was firmly "in the zone".
