Labor claims control of Aussie underdog campaign

CANBERRA - Labor is claiming underdog status near the midway point of the election campaign as another opinion poll shows the coalition on track to win the August 21 poll.

A bad second week for the government has prompted Prime Minister Julia Gillard to take charge of Labor's flagging campaign, amid criticism of its stage-managed and scripted style.

As the campaign rolled into its third week, senior Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen has claimed the underdog status for the government.

"When you look at the polls ... certainly that's a status we're entitled to claim," he told ABC Radio on Monday.

The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian newspaper on Monday, shows why.

The 50-50 two-party preferred result, if played out on election day, would give the coalition a slim majority.

A Nielsen poll on Saturday had Labor trailing the coalition 48-52 per cent and heading for a thumping defeat.

Ms Gillard now says she is throwing the election campaigning rule book out the window.

"I think the campaign we've been running has been a traditional campaign, that is you get very stage-managed events, you get a glimpse of me," she told the Nine Network on Monday.

"Now I want to take control and make sure that I am out there, well and truly, talking to the Australian people."

Ms Gillard was true to her word, mixing with commuters and chatting with cafe workers in the relatively safe Labor seat of Parramatta on Monday morning.

She had some advice for Year 12 students Christina Povre and Beatrice Porres, both 17, who are preparing for exams.

"It's always normal to feel anxious before a test," she said.

The prime minister reportedly is angry with the way Labor officials have managed the government's re-election campaign.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is dismissive of Ms Gillard's apparent change of tack.

"What I hope is happening over this election campaign is that the real nature of the government is being exposed," he told ABC Radio from Cairns where he is campaigning on Monday.

Nor is the opposition leader worried about a Labor plan to expose "the real Tony Abbott".

"I think I'm a pretty known quantity," he said referring to his 16 years in parliament and "quite a few years" in public life before that.

Mr Abbott will make a tourism-related policy announcement later on Monday.

Ms Gillard's campaign caravan also will roll through Bennelong, the seat Labor grabbed from former prime minister John Howard in 2007, and Lindsay in western Sydney.

- AAP