ELECTION 2010: With polls even once again, Labor makes last minute paternity leave pitch

After more than 30 days of campaigning, the Federal Election is poised on a knife’s edge, with the latest opinion poll from Newspoll showing Labor and the Coalition are now tied at 50/50 on a two-party preferred basis.

The Coalition appears to be gaining ground as the campaign rushes to a close, and Opposition leader Tony Abbott sought to capitalise on this momentum by campaigning around the clock last night.

He visited a police station in Campbelltown, chatted to late night radio hosts and visited early morning fish and flower markets in a media blitz that came off as very enthusiastic and a little bit crazy.

A more restrained Julia Gillard has also been hitting the airwaves, playing a card that worked well for Labor at the start of this campaign – Work Choices.

“My focus is on the very, very real risk that Mr Abbott poses for Australian families, the risk of the return of to Work Choices, of a tax on groceries, of everything that will mean for cost of living pressures on Australian families,” Gillard told ABC radio this morning.

While much of the past few days has been taken up with arguments over the Coaliton’s policy costings, which Labor claims has a “black hole” of around $3 billion, Gillard fired the last major policy shot late yesterday with a further promise on parental leave.

Gillard had promised fathers will be able to access two weeks of government-funded paid parental leave, set at the minimum wage, or about $570 a week.

Gillard says the measure, which will cost $146 million over the next four years, would start from July 2012.

“The first few weeks settling in a new baby at home is exciting, but also challenging for new parents with long days, not much sleep, and the relentless extra bills,” Gillard said.

“For all those dads right across Australia, wherever you are, we’ll make sure you can spend quality time with mum and with the new baby, with money still coming in.”

Gillard and Abbott look set to focus their campaign in Sydney in the frantic run in to tomorrow’s vote.