Labor is basking on what looked like a second wind that can be used to propel its chances come the 2013 federal election, and the man, Kevin Rudd, the party caucus had ousted in 2010 is joining in the fun.

In a hastily-arranged news briefing at his Parliament office on Tuesday, the former prime minister told reporters that Labor's latest boost in opinion polls at the start of the week gave him something to rejoice about.

For the first time in the current year, the competition between the Gillard Government and the Coalition took more exciting turns as both Nielsen and Newspoll showed that the gaps between the two major parties were narrowing down.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott remains a strong contender for the prime minister post as both surveys pointed to a Coalition lead on primary votes and two-party preferred.

The new numbers indicated that the opposition has lost considerable grounds in the past three months and Mr Abbott himself now lags behind Prime Minister Julia Gillard in almost every respect.

He seemed to only lead on the negative departments, one opinion piece said on Tuesday.

Analysts blamed the overall Liberal policy for its receding support from voters. The carbon tax scare campaign largely failed to hit the mark while the border protection debate gradually died down when federal authorities accepted a compromise and opened up offshore processing for asylum seekers.

The integrity contest between Ms Gillard and Mr Abbot was not helpful at all, with the latter bruised last week by the ghost of his past actions as an aggressive university politician.

For Mr Rudd, however, the right Labor narrative is finally unfolding and guiding the ruling party to the right direction.

"This is where it should come down to; this is a debate about ideas, it's about policies and about the temperament of people who lead our country . . . I believe it's important that the focus is onto these two core sets of issues," The Australian reported the former Labor leader as saying on Tuesday.

"It's good that the government is going well in the opinion polls, it's good that we're going better," he added.

With the way things are going, Mr Rudd said Labor can now focus on two things: "One is our vision for the country's future and the second is the appropriate focus on Mr Abbott and his alternative vision, or non-vision for the country's future."

Also, in a party meeting, Treasurer Wayne Swan urged his fellow Labor to take advantage of the "wind at our backs," to crush the Liberal policy, which he claimed was being held together by 'chewing gum'.

"The more people look at Abbott, the more dangerous they see he is," Mr Swan was quoted by Fairfax as saying.