Surrounded by family and women, Bill Shorten wanted to drive a stark contrast home as the Labor leader went head-to-head with the Liberal campaign launch.
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Female candidates flanked Mr Shorten as he rounded the home turn heading into Saturday's federal election at a campaign rally in his Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong.
In another part of the Victorian capital, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was launching his party's campaign almost single handed.
Mr Shorten celebrated his 52nd birthday on Mothers' Day, four days after he tearfully defended his mother Ann's story in response to accusations he omitted details of her life.
"In the final sprint to the finish line the choice becomes clearer every day," he said on Sunday.
Wages, action on climate change, health and education were central to his pitch.
He also wanted to stress differences on infrastructure spending in Victoria, a key battleground where Labor is confident of making inroads.
The opposition will splash $10 billion on the Suburban Rail Loop, a 90km rail ring around Melbourne with 12 new underground station's connecting the city's major train lines.
The project will cost $50 billion in total and was a key policy that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews took to a devastating election win in November.
Addressing the rally, Mr Shorten described the underground train system as the "mother of all infrastructure projects".
That promise went up against the coalition's $4 billion pledge to build the East-West Link, a road which state Liberals took twice to elections without success.
"We will finally defeat the proposition that to get anywhere else in Melbourne you have to go into the middle," Mr Shorten told party faithful.
Labor's candidate for the blue ribbon seat of Higgins in Melbourne's east, Fiona McLeod, introduced the opposition leader with a brutal sledge to Scott Morrison.
"I also want the next prime minister of Australia to know that he isn't an oxygen thief because the current bloke certainly is," she said.
Mr Shorten described Higgins as "marginal" with polling showing the opposition is making headway in a seat the government holds with a 7.4 per cent margin.
He also compared opposing frontbench line-ups.
The Labor leader chided Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton who said last year Victorians were scared to go out to dinner because of African gangs.
"I am reliably informed that tens of thousands of Melburnians were too scared to go out to dinner last night - in case they ran into Peter Dutton," he said.
He also gave coalition ministers a whack for their absence during the campaign, zeroing in on Environment Minister Melissa Price.
"With six days days to go, there is more chance of the Tasmanian tiger holding a press conference than the current minister for the environment," Mr Shorten said.
He had the crowd laughing when he compared Labor's choice for deputy prime minister Tanya Plibersek with Nationals leader Michael McCormack.
While the Liberal Party eschewed history at its launch on Sunday, Labor is doing the opposite in the final days of the campaign.
The Labor leader will on Thursday give a speech in the western Sydney suburb of Blacktown at the same spot Gough Whitlam delivered his It's Time address in 1972.
Australian Associated Press
