Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will go head-to-head in the first leader's debate of the election campaign tonight.

The event will be the first time the two men have debated outside Parliament.

It will be in a so-called people's forum format, with the two leaders taking questions from 100 undecided voters.

Mr Shorten wanted the event to be held in North Queensland where he has spent the week targeting coalition seats held by small margins.

"Mr Turnbull would rather stay in Sydney and debate me, than come to Townsville where a lot of people legitimately have an expectation of hearing both of us," Mr Shorten said on Tuesday.

"So, we'll go to him because I want all Australians to hear the issues."

Mr Turnbull has promised there would be multiple debates during the campaign.

"I look forward to having a number of them," he said on Sunday.

The forum will be at 7:00pm (AEST) at the Windsor RSL in the western Sydney seat of Macquarie, held by Liberal MP Louise Marcus.

Labor's candidate for the seat is Susan Templeman, who is a former journalist.