Leaders make late dash to win votes

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott are moving at warp speed in the final hours of the
election campaign, throwing everything they can at undecided voters in an attempt to
cross the finish line first.
Neither leader is leaving anything to chance as they tear around the eastern
seaboard in the last 48 hours of the campaign to pick up votes in marginal seats
that will decide the election.
Despite Labor having the edge in the opinion polls, the prime minister insisted on
Thursday it would be a "cliffhanger" finish.
Mr Abbott was more confident about his chances.
"I am increasingly confident we will (get over the line)," the opposition leader
told Fairfax Radio Network.
And according to internal Labor polling, leaked to the Seven Network, his faith
could be well-founded.
According to the network, polling suggests Labor could lose up to 20 marginal seats
- 10 each in NSW and Queensland.
This would strip it of government, even though the polling shows that nationally
Labor is still ahead - 52 per cent to 48 per cent - on a two-party preferred basis.
The coalition needs 17 Labor seats to win the election but the government can lose
its absolute majority if it loses 13 seats.
In her final big pitch to the Australian people at the National Press Club, Ms
Gillard offered an 11th hour policy to win over working parents, with a sweetener to
tempt people upset by Labor's opposition to gay marriage.
Labor plans to build on its paid parental leave scheme - which provides 18 weeks'
pay at the minimum wage for mothers - by offering new fathers two weeks' paid leave
on the same terms.
With Labor facing mounting criticism over its refusal to budge on gay marriage, a
possible vote changer in Australian Greens strongholds like Melbourne, Ms Gillard
stressed "other partners" would also be eligible for the extra benefit.
The opposition leader was using his renowned stamina to his best advantage with a
blitz on marginal seats around Brisbane on Thursday before heading to Sydney in the
afternoon.
After a crack of dawn start, Mr Abbott hit the trail in Moreton, Longman, Brisbane
and Petrie.
Despite his mad dash, it was an increasingly confident opposition leader on display
Thursday evening.
"I am utterly determined. It's as if there's five minutes to go in a Test match, the
scores are level and we've got to make sure we win, that's how I feel at the
moment," Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio Network.
If the coalition fell at the last hurdle, there would be "terrible disappointment".
"If on the other hand we do get over the line, and I am increasingly confident we
will, then you've got another challenge to rise to," Mr Abbott said.
He was planning to keep going for 36 hours straight in an attempt to talk to as many
voters as possible, visiting late night haunts like pubs and taking to the airwaves
overnight.
Mr Abbott told reporters he wanted to give Australians the "best possible chance" to
change a bad government - even if it means going without sleep.
"I will do everything humanly I can to win this election and I understand that the
public will only entrust with the prime ministership to someone who is really
working for them," he said.
Ms Gillard is using a different tactic to win over the waverers, reminding them of
the "stark" choice between Labor and the coalition.
"I have sought to lay before the Australian people a positive set of policies that
are the building blocks of my vision for this nation," she said.
"By contrast, Mr Abbott seeks your confidence through relentless negativity. At the
end of the day he asks you to protest but presents no plan."
She warned there was a very real risk Australians could wake up on Sunday with Mr
Abbott as prime minister.
"It is a very, very real possibility and so a very, very real risk for Australian
families," Ms Gillard said.
"That's why I'm fighting right up until the closing of the polls in as many
communities as I can get to."
Ms Gillard urged voters to judge her and Labor by what it had achieved in government.
"What I would seek to be judged by is what gets done (and) achieved," she said.
She asked that people consider what the government had done in education, in
broadband, on the economy and in workplace relations.
"It took some courage to step in the global financial crisis when there wasn't
anybody in this country or around the world ... who had the rule book, knew what was
going to happen next, to step up and to make the decision to keep Australians in
jobs," Ms Gillard said.
"We got it done."