Kevin Rudd says the government has squibbed on some hard decisions and he will be a pair of strong and stable hands.
Julia Gillard says she has delivered big reforms, put money in peoples' pockets and is delivering jobs for the future.
The auction for the hearts and minds of the Labor caucus, and voting public, has begun.
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Rudd today used a media conference in Washington, before flying home to Brisbane, to lay out an agenda should he be returned again as prime minister.
His achievements as leader from 2007 to mid-2010 were "formidable", saved Australia from recession and kept people in jobs as global markets faltered.
But Australia needed "strong and stable hands" to ensure the current uncertainty in Europe did not threaten the economy.
Despite Labor having delivered a boost to education and health spending, launched the national broadband network and started to tackle climate change, the former prime minister said big policy challenges were ahead.
The biggest was the "restoration and maintenance of business confidence", Rudd said as he flagged an overhaul of the tax treatment of investment in small business.
After quitting cabinet as foreign minister on Wednesday, Rudd criticised Gillard's axing of his green car innovation fund - which provided assistance to companies for projects to cut car fuel consumption and carbon emissions - as a breach of "good faith".
Backing the restoration of the policy is good politics for Rudd as he woos Left members of the caucus, who want more assistance for the auto sector.
He attacked Gillard's dumping of his hospitals plan, saying she "squibbed some of the hard decisions" on health.
Taking aim at the prime minister's pet portfolio of education, Rudd said he was disappointed at the abolition of the HECS discount for maths and science students going to university and wanted more effort put into Asian languages.
To not go down this path would be to "kiss tomorrow goodbye".
Rudd's message was simple, but what he left unsaid was his inability - unlike Gillard - to get the states to agree on a hospitals deal.
He also ignored the fact that an independent inquiry found the HECS discount did not work.
Gillard today promised a government of "consistency, purpose, method, discipline, inclusion and consultation" - all of which were lacking in the dying days of the Rudd regime.
She listed carbon pricing, the minerals resource rent tax, an overhaul of the health funding system, education reform and the structural separation of Telstra as key achievements.
The underlying message was that Rudd failed to get his emissions trading scheme or Telstra legislation through parliament, ditched the mining tax in the wake of an industry campaign and could not convince the states on his hospitals plan.
The overt message was she was getting on with the job, as the carbon and mining taxes delivered income and business tax cuts, welfare and pension rises, a boost to superannuation, new infrastructure, clean energy projects and lower environmental emissions.
All of which came through her strong leadership, good relations with hostile state governments and despite having to negotiate every bill through parliament with the Greens and independents.
She acknowledged her government had "made mistakes" over the past 18 months but argued she was driven by a desire to make Australia "stronger and fairer" - not opinion polls.
As the leadership contest comes to a head next week, voters and Labor's 103 federal members and senate won't be in the dark where their champions stand on major policy areas.
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