The prime minister and opposition leader have hit the hustings in marginal seats across Queensland and Victoria to spruik their economic credentials after .
Appearing in Brisbane alongside Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Labor leader Anthony Albanese promised to reduce road congestion in the capital.
Mr Albanese used his trip on Monday to announce $200 million to widen the arterial Bruce Highway in the city's north to eight lanes.
It comes amid hopes Labor could win seats in Queensland — like Leichhardt, Flynn and Capricornia — as well as a host of seats in inner Brisbane electorates.
But Mr Albanese admitted the party needed to do better in the state.
"I will spend substantial time in Queensland and I make this point - I don't just come to Queensland when there is a federal election campaign, or to campaign against the Palaszczuk government and do fundraisers like Scott Morrison did," he said.
"I have been here consistently now over two decades, making a difference, making commitments, seeing projects realised right throughout the entire state."
Labor has also promised to put a cap on home care fees if it wins, with Mr Albanese saying elderly clients will be able to be confident their money is going directly to care - not management bonuses, new office fit-outs or glossy marketing schemes.
Meanwhile, Mr Morrison was on Monday in the must-keep seat Melbourne seat of Chisholm, spruiking the government's manufacturing and apprenticeships credentials.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said outlined a clear choice on a stronger economy underpinned by large infrastructure projects.
"(Infrastructure) is something our nation has got to do in light of the circumstances of what we see with China pushing forward and becoming a real and imminent threat to Australia," he told the Seven Network.
But a senior minister was forced to defend the federal coalition's poor standing in the latest set of opinion polls, ahead of Mr Morrison firing the starting gun on the election.
A Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows 38 per cent of the primary vote is going to Labor — a fall of three percentage points since the last survey — with the coalition improving a point to 36 per cent.
But on a two-party preferred basis, Labor is ahead 54 per cent to 46 per cent for the government, which if realised at the May election could translate to a national swing of more than five per cent.
An Ipsos poll published by The Australian Financial Review shows the two-party vote gap has widened slightly to 10 points, despite the government's budget offering of $8.6 billion in cost of living measures, with Labor ahead 55-45 per cent.
But Agriculture Minister David Littleproud says while the polls aren't being ignored, it's not the first time the coalition has been behind in the lead-up to an election.
"(Election day) is the one that counts and obviously this isn't our first rodeo - we've been here and done this before," Mr Littleproud told the Nine Network.
The coalition is also hitting the NSW Hunter region with a $41 million announcement for defence force infrastructure to create up to 80 new jobs.
Mr Littleproud says there's a real chance of bringing the Hunter into the Nationals' tent following the retirement of incumbent Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon.
"The reality is, unfortunately once (Labor) get into government ... no one else will be standing there for those jobs, those coal jobs and what those coal jobs look like in the future," he told AAP.
"We've got a 2050 (net-zero) plan that uses a thing called common sense, making sure we protect those jobs — and give a pathway into new jobs where possible — but not panicking into making a knee-jerk reaction."
