A defiant Kevin Rudd began the final week of the election campaign today with an appeal to voters to back their instincts, as a Newspoll showed Labor heading for defeat on Saturday.

The poll, published in The Australian, has Labor trailing the Coalition 46 points to 54 after preferences, and says Tony Abbott has overtaken Mr Rudd as preferred PM.

Mr Rudd has made several campaign stops down the Queensland coast, along the way warning that basic services would be under threat if the Coalition wins the election.

Meanwhile Mr Abbott travelled to Sydney's Holsworthy Army Base to highlight the Coalition's defence policy, which included a change of heart on earlier plans to spend $1.5 billion on a fleet of drones to patrol Australia's coastline.

He later used an address to the National Press Club to remind voters that he thinks this weekend's vote is essentially a referendum on the carbon tax.

Look back at how the day's developments unfolded on our blog: