Kevin Rudd took to the stage at Geelong's Trades Hall on Thursday morning a renewed man, enjoying a hero's reception from union members in the safe Labor seat of Corio.
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Visibly energised from Wednesday night's ''people's forum'' in Brisbane, Mr Rudd told the cheering crowd the labour movement was facing the fight of its life against Tony Abbott's Coalition. But, he said, he would fight to the end.
''I've been written off more times than I can remember,'' Mr Rudd said. ''But you know something? I'm made of sterner stuff than that. We're made of sterner stuff than that; you're made of sterner stuff than that. And in this election campaign we're not going to take a backwards step. We're going to fight, fight and fight.''
Joined by Darren Cheeseman, who holds the neighbouring electorate of Corangamite by just 0.3 per cent, and Richard Marles, who holds Corio by a healthy 13.5 per cent, Mr Rudd stepped up his attack on Mr Abbott's paid parental leave scheme, which he repeatedly described as ''$75,000 for millionaires'' (the maximum payment for those on $150,000 a year is $75,000 over six months).
And, after a week spent campaigning on health and education, Mr Rudd and his Industrial Relations Minister Bill Shorten took to the Coalition's industrial relations policies.
For the first time, Mr Rudd likened his campaign to unfinished business from the 2007 election, signalling that Labor would increasingly focus on industrial relations issues.
Despite Mr Abbott's assurances that he would ''not touch'' the sections of the workplace relations laws relating to pay and penalties, Mr Rudd said: ''I did not fight the 2007 election to defeat WorkChoices, to see Tony back - Tony Abbott back - in power as part of a conservative government to reintroduce Work Choices.''
In Wednesday's debate, Mr Abbott said of Work Choices ''we learnt our lesson. We lost an election on it.'' As for pay and penalty rates, ''we are not going to touch those provisions of the Fair Work Act'', Mr Abbott said, but he wanted to reduce the power of unions to enter workplaces.
But Mr Shorten said, ''We know … we can never take our working conditions for granted again.
''We know that there is the Coalition … to be in government and we know what they did last time they were in power. They went after the conditions of working people in Australia. And they now say that they've learned the lesson?''
''Bullshit,'' cried a bearded man.
This was never going to be Tony Abbott's crowd.
