Still too close to call on eve of election

Australia is preparing to go to the polls tomorrow more confused and uncertain about its immediate future than in any election for decades.

Polls and betting patterns still could give no clear indication of who will win power as Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave her final address of the campaign and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott launched into a 36-hour, non-stop blitz of marginal seats in Queensland and New South Wales.

The result remains caught in a pendulum that swings from a narrow victory for Labor to an historic triumph by the Coalition over a first-term Government. In between is the prospect of the first hung Parliament since 1940.

"Let me make it absolutely clear that this election is an absolute cliffhanger," Gillard told the National Press Club.

Many of the major policies have been blurred in the clutter of campaigning, which has focused tightly on the two leaders and their desperate bid to win crucial votes in the 30 marginal seats that will decide who wins.

Gillard has pulled Labor back out of the chasm of certain defeat in the past fortnight, with national polls and internet betting now giving the Government a small but winning lead.

On Wednesday night she added another brick to her wall by winning the majority of 200 undecided voters who took part in a second "town hall" forum in Brisbane, following last week's success by Abbott in western Sydney.

Labor has also been bolstered by polls showing it has erased the lead previously enjoyed by the Coalition in economic management, supported further yesterday by widespread criticism of campaign costings produced by the Opposition.

The Coalition refused to submit the costings for official testing by the Treasury, instead submitting them to an accountancy firm with links to the party in a move that reduced the credibility of its forecasts of a A$6 billion ($7.2 billion) budget surplus within three years - double the Government's projected figure.

The Government leapt on figures showing the target could be met, if at all, only by deep cuts to health, education and the public service.

But both polling and betting in marginal seats continues to conflict with national patterns, pointing to the loss of sufficient Labor seats in key marginals to hand power to the Coalition.

Central issues for Gillard remain the ousting of predecessor Kevin Rudd, massive waste in financial stimulus spending, broken promises - especially over climate change - and asylum seekers.

The boats have a huge emotive impact that has been exploited by Abbott and have leapt to the forefront of both parties' campaigns.

The force was shown yesterday in a poll by American firm YouGov/Polimetrix for the US Studies Centre and Stanford University, showing that concern about asylum seekers and illegal immigrants in Australia is higher than in America, where 11 million entered the country last year.

Yesterday, news that East Timor would consider a detailed plan from Australia for a new detention centre there was offset by the interception of another boat off Christmas Island - the seventh during the campaign.

With polls showing one in 10 voters will only make up their minds in the next 24 hours, the two parties are pushing all available buttons in a last-minute rush.

Gillard yesterday dismissed suggestions there were few differences between the two, saying Australians were faced with a stark choice and that anyone who thought differently "hasn't met me and certainly hasn't met Mr Abbott".

She drew lines between opposing positions on economic management, broadband technology, company taxes - reducing under Labor, climbing with Abbott - health, industrial laws, asylum seekers, mining taxes and climate change.

Referring to her record as Education Minister, she said: "Judge me on who I am and what I've done."

While Gillard announced a new promise to give fathers and partners two weeks' parental leave paid at the federal minimum wage of A$570 ($689.80) a week, Abbott offered university students a reduction in student loans in return for voluntary work, and A$9 million ($10.8 million) for local environmental clean-up projects.

"It's very, very important to give the Australian people the best possible chance to change a really bad government," he said. "I will do everything I humanly can [and] if that means I lose the best part of one night's sleep, that's a small price to pay."

Harry the saltie goes for Gillard

CANBERRA - There are no crocodile tears for Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Darwin.

Yesterday Harry, a 5m saltwater crocodile which last month picked eventual victor Spain to win the Football World Cup, tipped Gillard to triumph in tomorrow's election.

The 720kg monster took five minutes to choose between two chicken carcasses suspended from pictures of Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

To cheers from the crowd, Harry finally chomped on the prime ministerial chook.

"He saw the future and I think he might have something going with Paul the octopus," handler Nigel Palmer told the ABC.

Paul was the 2-year-old octopus at an Oberhausen, Germany, aquarium that correctly tipped the outcome of Germany's matches during the World Cup, as well as the Netherlands' loss to Spain in the final.