OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has dismissed Prime Minister Julia Gillard's planned mini-campaign in western Sydney next week as merely a visit in place of a plan.
And in a sign that the contest for votes will be ferocious with as many as a dozen seats in play, Mr Abbott challenged Ms Gillard to match his promised $1.5 billion WestConnex project, linking the west with the airport and Port Botany.
Ms Gillard will base herself in Rooty Hill's Novotel Hotel in western Sydney from Sunday for five days and will stay there each night rather than return to Kirribilli House.
The five-day blitz, in a region where the ALP faces the prospect of major seat losses, will begin with a speech at the University of Western Sydney and is expected to include social media events and meetings with ethnic communities.
There will also be a series of industry, hospital and school visits, and a full cabinet meeting on Monday.
Ministers are expected to make policy announcements relevant to the location with the issue of gun crime in Sydney's west a possible topic.
The visit is designed to rebuild Labor's connection with the concerns of ordinary people in the country's largest city, many of whom feel economically marginalised and face long hours each week in traffic jams.
They also suffer from overcrowded hospitals and other public infrastructure.
News of Ms Gillard's visit broke as the latest Newspoll confirmed Labor's primary vote support has slumped and that Mr Abbott remains the preferred prime minister among voters.
Speaking from northern Queensland, Mr Abbott said it was ''good that the Prime Minister has noticed western Sydney''.
''The forgotten families of western Sydney don't want a prime minister with a campaign gimmick, they want a prime minister with a plan,'' he said.
''My team and I don't just visit western Sydney, we have real solutions … and it starts with removing the carbon tax from people's power bills and local business, stopping the boats and providing $1.5 billion to build the WestConnex.
''Julia Gillard cannot claim to understand what western Sydney needs if she doesn't match our funding for WestConnex, local families deserve no less from their prime minister.''
Labor's push into Sydney's sprawling western suburbs follows a mini-campaign by Mr Abbott several weeks back, which was one factor prompting Ms Gillard to set the election date 7½ months in advance.
The decision to spend nights in western Sydney risks being seen as pure electioneering rather than the sober governing she has advocated.
But Special Minister of State Gary Gray defended the strategy as appropriate consultation with voters.
''She'll talk about jobs, she'll talk about the protection of jobs, and the Prime Minister will also talk about Labor's education initiatives, healthcare initiatives, and the growth that is happening in our economy and the support for families that we have in place,'' he said.
This would contrast with what he called ''the destruction of public services that is happening in New South Wales'' at the hands of the state government, he said.
Both parties believe disgruntled voters in western Sydney will effectively decide the September 14 election because of a slew of marginal Labor-held seats tipped to fall to the Coalition. Labor has 10 seats in the area, all of which are regarded as at risk despite some having what would normally be regarded as safe margins above 5 per cent. Of these, three belong to ministers - Chris Bowen, Peter Garrett and David Bradbury.
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