BEING mobbed by admirers at a jobs expo was a welcome bit of adulation for Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she wound up her very public five-day stay in Sydney's west.

Her tour felt like an election campaign, with ministers and local MPs in tow and on show, and a big media pack on her trail.

But the attention on the prime minister's western blitz was marred by recent dire opinion polls for Labor in the region, showing the party faces losing a slew of seats.

And comments on the street from residents in places like Rooty Hill, where the prime minister based herself, hinted at widespread unrest over her leadership style, even from Labor voters.

Ms Gillard had some relief from that on Thursday when she visited a jobs expo at Liverpool and was mobbed by hundreds of admiring job seekers, many of them recent migrants.

During her western Sydney stay she maintained she was just governing, listening to local concerns and outlining what the government was doing to help.

But a rousing call-to-arms speech to a thousand Labor Party faithful applauding at the University of Western Sydney on Sunday was all about rallying the troops in tough times.

Ms Gillard promised that Sydney's west would not be placed second to other regions by her government, which was responding to residents' concerns.

This week she announced a series of initiatives to benefit the region and address local concerns about traffic congestion, gang crime and jobs.

But her promise to stump up $1 billion for the WestConnex road project may have bought a fight with the NSW government, after she set conditions that routes must go all the way to the CBD and Port Botany.

Her initiatives to crack down on gang crime have also upset Liberal state governments with her call for the states to hand over certain legal powers to the Commonwealth.

On Thursday, Ms Gillard said she'd had a "good week" in the west but she declined to comment on whether Labor was "dead in the water" in the west.

"We're not here to talk about opinion polls, we're here to talk about issues that matter for the people.

"People will make their own decisions in September about how they want to vote.

"This government has a very clear plan for the future. We've charted the course and we want to pursue it ... on the other side of politics we just see negativity. Come September people will make their choice."

At Mulgoa preschool in Sydney's far west on Thursday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he didn't need to make a big deal about his visits because he knew the area so well.

"The people of western Sydney want a plan, they just don't want a visit," he told reporters.

"This is not foreign country as far as I'm concerned.

"They want a constructive engagement that doesn't just start on Sunday and end on Thursday."

Originally published as Gillard says goodbye to Rooty Hill