Kevin Rudd's Labor Party is frantically redirecting campaign funding into seats it had long written off under former prime minister Julia Gillard.
With Mr Rudd launching a national advertising campaign portraying himself as a leader seeking to rise above petty, negative politics on Sunday, the funds will be spent on opposition and ALP seats the party now sees as winnable.
Under the new strategy Western Sydney seats and marginals in Victoria where Labor is clinging onto office are being targeted with extra field teams and funding.
And in Queensland, six Coalition-held seats - Brisbane, Longman, Bowman, Dawson, Herbert and Forde - are being targeted.
Advertisement
The Labor Party began shooting the ad last weekend but with Mr Rudd only just returning from Indonesia, the ad was still being filmed late on Saturday in a mad dash to complete it for prime-time television.
Calling on both phoenix suns 8s sides of politics to come up with a positive plan for Australia's future, Mr Rudd places leadership phoenix suns 8s for sale at the centre of his election pitch.
"I believe all Australians are sick and tired of negative politics. I believe people want us all to raise the standards," he says.
"It's time for both sides of politics to have a positive plan for our country's future."
The advertisement, the first since Mr Rudd resumed the prime ministership a week-and-a-half ago, signals Labor's intention to target what it perceives as flaws in Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's leadership style and public appeal.
ALP national secretary and campaign director George Wright said leadership was the Coalition's weak point.
All they have put forward to date is cartoons, old style negative political ads and three-word slogans, he said.
"We know that the Liberal Party camp don't want Tony Abbott doing long form interviews or debating Kevin Rudd at the press club on the economy.
It is not Mr Rudd's first call to lift the political tone. He used his first parliamentary question time after successfully challenging Ms Gillard for the Labor leadership to say it was time to end "the politics of negativity".
But Mr Abbott questioned the Prime Minister's sincerity.
He said Mr Rudd has used his return to the Labor leadership to run "a whole lot of negative lines" against the Coalition and him personally. "Look, it shouldn't be people being against someone," Mr Abbott said in a radio interview.
"It should be people being for something and what I am for is a better government, a stronger economy and a more confident and more successful Australia."
A Labor insider said on Saturday that Mr Rudd should be cautious about talking too much about rising above negative politics.
"There was nothing more negative about the politics used to undermine Julia Gillard," the source said.
Meanwhile, former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser said Australia's major political parties are engaged in a race to the bottom using fear to fuel the debate over asylum seekers.
At a public forum in Adelaide on Saturday, Mr Fraser threw his support behind Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at the coming election saying she was a resolute and far-minded voice on asylum-seeker policy.
He said his support was for the person, not the party.
The state of the political debate in Canberra is wretched, Mr Fraser said.
Mr Fraser said the opposition's policy to turn back the boats would not work, and while recent talks between Mr Rudd and Indonesia had made progress, the jordan 8 phoenix suns asylum seeker issue was a worldwide problem that required a global solution.