Labor has put women front and centre of its official campaign launch, with Bill Shorten's wife Chloe making a rare public speech to introduce her husband to the party faithful.
Chloe Shorten joined the opposition's strongest female performers, Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek, to talk up Mr Shorten, highlighting his "unconditional respect for equality for women".
"Let me talk about the one who I love - caring, smart, funny, gentle, he is a wonderful dad, a terrible dancer, and a very proud bulldog owner," Ms Shorten told about 500 supporters.
While Bill Shorten trails Scott Morrison as preferred prime minister in the polls, Labor strategists believe his wife Chloe is popular among voters.
Her speech followed a promotional video which showed a raft of frontbenchers talking about Bill, his respect for women and the team's strengths.
“He really values strong women, he really values smart women,” Senator Wong said in the video.
Gillard and Rudd side-by-side
The official launch in Brisbane brought together former prime ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, who appeared smiling side-by-side.
Paul Keating was also in attendance, but Bob Hawke was unable to make it due to ill health.
Former prime ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd arrive at the Labor campaign launch together. Source: AAP
"Bob, we love you and in the next 13 days, we are going to do this for you," Mr Shorten told the crowd.
The Labor leader used his speech to announce a new tax cut for small businesses, while also making a pitch to worried parents in hospital emergency waiting rooms.
In his 40-minute speech to party faithful in Brisbane on Sunday, Mr Shorten made the case for change, stressing the party's promises on health, tax policy and action on climate change.
"We will defy the pseudoscience and the scare campaigns.
"If we have the privilege of serving as the next government of Australia, I will not bring lumps of coal to Parliament for a laugh, while temperatures soar; and bushfires rage; and flood and drought batter our land," Mr Shorten said in a reference to a stunt by Scott Morrison.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has been reluctant on agreeing to another debate. Source: AAP
He outlined what he called the "new jobs tax cut" which would allow businesses with a turnover of up to $10 million that hire an unemployed person to claim an extra 30 per cent tax deduction on their salary.
Mr Shorten also put the finishing touches on Labor's health policy suite with a $500 million commitment for emergency department upgrades, and more doctors and nurses to staff them.
"Anyone who's rushed their child to a hospital in the middle of the night knows Australia has some of the best healthcare workers in the world.
"But years of Liberal cuts, not keeping their promise, forcing public hospitals to do more and more with less and less, they take their toll."
He also promised Labor would spend almost $200 million filling a gap in youth mental health services to help those who need more care than their regular doctor can provide but don't need hospitalisation.
This will build four new headspace Plus hubs, in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Tasmania, to give young people with moderate to complex mental ill-health access to GPs, mental health nurses, psychiatrists and addiction specialists.
The party sees health as one of its key strengths, with Mr Shorten spending the whole first week of the election campaign announcing new plans in the portfolio.
Labor has hammered its message over the past three weeks that it will close tax loopholes for the top earners and multinationals and use the money to fund better services, especially hospitals and schools, for everyone.
The government has countered by pointing to the record of the Rudd-Gillard government - which covered the period of the global financial crisis - and its legacy of a deficit.
But the opposition has released a report on Sunday from the McKell Institute finding its plans for a permanent instant asset write-off for all businesses would lead to 77,000 more jobs and an average $1500 wage boost compared with the Coalition's agenda.
The Labor-linked progressive think tank concluded that because the two parties had the same company tax rate policy - after the Coalition dumped plans for further cuts to big business in the face of parliamentary opposition - but Labor offered accelerated depreciation, its Australian Investment Guarantee "provides greater incentives for new private-sector investment than the Coalition's policy".
EMPLOYMENT
*Increasing wages and bringing back penalty rates
*Cracking down on abuse of 457 visa workers
*Cleaning up labour hire
*A tax cut for companies that turnover less than $10 million who take on a new employee under 25 or over 55, or a parent or carer. They could claim an additional 30 per cent deduction on the salary of up to five people.
ECONOMY
*Reforms to prevent big corporations using royalties to avoid paying taxes
*Increasing the amount of government housing
*Encouraging increased industry investment in hydrogen
*Funding for roads infrastructure including Queensland's M1 and Ipswich motorways, the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane and Tasmania's Bass Link 2
HEALTH
*Providing dental care to pensioners, paid for by Medicare
*Capping the premium increase for private healthcare at no more than two per cent for the first two years in government.
*Increasing Medicare rebates for cancer treatment and access to specialists
*$197 million to trial four new youth mental health facilities, and another $6 million for the Kids Helpline
*$500 million in upgrades to public hospital emergency departments to cut down wait times
EDUCATION
*Better subsidies and cheaper childcare for every family who earns under $174,000
*A pay rise for early childhood educators
*Uncapping the number of university places
*Increasing funding for TAFEs and pre-school and kindergartens so all children aged three and four are educated.
