Australian PM vows “yes” as polls loom

Welsh-born Gillard, the country's first woman leader, talked up a planned broadband network and mocked opposition leader Tony Abbott's new initiative against illegal immigrants at an austere Labour Party "launch" in Brisbane.

"Yes we will keep our economy growing stronger day by day. Yes we will offer people the benefits and dignity of work. Yes we will transform our education system so every child gets the benefit of a great education."

The latest Newspoll gave Gillard a four-point lead ahead of Saturday's election as she strives to overcome voter disquiet over her June party coup against elected leader Kevin Rudd.

Wearing a simple black suit, Gillard, 48, stressed Labor's economic record in avoiding a recession during the financial crisis as her party seeks to avoid becoming the first one-term government since World War II.

"We emerged from this downturn stronger than the rest of the world," she said. "That's a fantastic opportunity but to seize this opportunity we've got to have strong management, we've got to have proper plans for the future and I have them."

She attacked the conservative Abbott's economic plans and his new promise to personally advise naval commanders on whether to turn back boats carrying hundreds of Afghans and Sri Lankans seeking asylum to the country's north.

Gillard said a 43 billion-dollar (38 billion US) plan to wire 93 percent of homes with high-speed broadband would vastly improve lives, and vowed Internet medical consultations for Outback residents by next year.

She pledged good education for all and better training, as well as to ease cost-of-living pressures which have made Australians among the world's hardest workers, eroding its famed quality of life.

Analysts have decried a lacklustre campaign by both Labour and the Coalition, focusing on small-scale pledges and policy minutiae, despite the fascinating backdrop of Rudd's spectacular ousting just seven weeks ago.

The unmarried, openly atheist and childless Gillard is pitted against Abbott, a colourful, pro-family religious conservative, who has steered clear of the gaffes which have studded his career, to mount a strong challenge.

While Gillard held the key event in resource-rich Queensland, Rudd's home state and a major electoral battleground, Abbott was touring marginal seats in western Sydney.

"A government which wastes money cannot be a good economic manager," he said. "A government which clobbers our mining industry with a great big tax doesn't know how to manage our economy."

A swing of just 2.3 percent would drive Labour from power less than three years after Rudd ended conservative John Howard's 11-year reign.