Leaders launch final assault for votes

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the campaign trail in Gosford, New South Wales. Photo / Getty Images

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott are mounting a final assault to convince undecided voters they're the best person to lead the country.

Opinion polls are suggesting the result will go down to the wire and the Australian public may not know who has won on Saturday night.

Newspoll, published in The Australian newspaper, showed the two-party preferred vote was split down the line, with Labor and the coalition both on 50 per cent.

Internal Labor polling, leaked to the Seven Network on Thursday, suggests the government could win the popular vote but still not carry enough seats in crucial marginal electorates.

It seems certain the result will come down to the decision made by wavering voters in about 30 marginal seats once polls open at 8am on Saturday.

Campaigning in Gosford, where Labor is trying to hold the NSW seat of Robertson, Ms Gillard had one message only and that was that Mr Abbott was a risk to the nation.

"There is a real risk that Mr Abbott will be the prime minister of Australia on Sunday," she told reporters on Friday morning.

"And that's a real risk for the future of Australian families. It certainly means that there is a real risk that Work Choices will be back."

Mr Abbott continued his marathon 36-hour blitz of tight seats, keen to emphasise how hard he would work for the people of Australia.

Up since 4.30am on Thursday, he spent the early morning hours of Friday doing numerous radio interviews before heading to the Sydney Flower Market in Flemington before dawn.

His photogenic family was also out in force to convince voters the man who struggles with the female vote was a good bet.

On Macquarie Radio Network, Mr Abbott stuck to the mantra at the centre of his five-week campaign.

After a relentlessly negative campaign, in the dying hours Mr Abbott tried to turn around that perception.

He said he didn't want to run down the government.

"I want to say that we would do a better job," he said.

"I think that what we would do starting on day one is we'd end the waste, we'd pay back the debt, we'd stop the big new taxes and we'd stop the boats.

"I think that a lot of people are very concerned that this government has got our country into trouble. I'm not saying they're bad people, I'm just saying that they've disappointed people because in important respects they have let us down."

The coalition needs 17 Labor seats to win the election by garnering a uniform swing of 2.3 per cent across the country. But the government can lose its absolute majority if it loses 13 seats.

- AAP