ELLEN RANSLEY: Confident Albo hits the streets in Cabramatta hunt for soft voters 

Fresh off winning the final debate, Anthony Albanese entered the last week of the election campaign ahead in the polls and with an air of confidence.

At this stage, it’s his race to lose, but the Prime Minister appeared careful not to get too far ahead of himself as he spent Monday making local announcements, visiting pre-poll booths, being heckled, affectionately described as a “sick c...”, kissing babies, and posing for selfies.

In a careful game of both offense and defence, it was one of the most colourful days of his campaign as Labor heads into the final sprint ahead of its opponent.

The bulk of their policy and pitch is out there for voters to see now, and the biggest task for the PM this week is to get the cohort of “soft”, undecided voters to put Labor first.

His first stop was Gosford, in the bellwether seat of Robertson. If the Central Coast electorate, currently held by Labor with a 2.2 per cent margin, keeps with its own 40+ year tradition, then whichever party wins it this weekend will form Government.

The electorate is also reeling from a horrific tragedy, after teenager Audrey Griffin was allegedly murdered last month. Domestic and family violence was top of mind for the PM as he announced $20m for a new women’s and children’s trauma recovery centre.

The Coalition pledged the same — showing just how crucial this seat is to both side’s hopes of forming government.

Back in Sydney, the PM went on a tour of marginal electorates.

At a pre-poll centre in the ultra-marginal seat of Bennelong, held by Labor’s Jerome Laxale but now notionally Liberal after the redistribution, the PM was greeted by a throng of volunteers for both sides as he handed out “how to vote” cards.

“Hi ma’am, I’m the Prime Minister,” he told one bemused voter, before a brief — but heavy — downpour.

As he left, one Liberal volunteer quipped: “It was sunny until he came along”.

The PM was only there for ten minutes, but Labor will be hoping it’s enough to swing some of the soft voters across the line.

Then it was across the harbour, to the electorate of Banks. Held by shadow foreign affairs minister David Coleman, the seat hasn’t rated much of a mention this campaign.

But the PM has made no secret of his dual tactics. He doesn’t want to just stem losses to the Coalition, he wants to pick seats up this election. If he is to avoid falling into minority Government, both tasks are as crucial as each other.

Outside the Padstow voting centre, he was subjected to a lengthy spray by a candidate from Labor defector Fatima Payman’s new party. He seemed unfazed, focusing instead on shaking hands with a young boy and speaking to a couple of voters. One - a “soft” voter leaning towards Labor — described the experience as being “surreal”.

That word came up again in Cabramatta, in the electorate of Fowler, where the PM spent half an hour interacting with locals as Labor’s Tu Le tries to wrest the western Sydney seat back from independent Dai Le.

Increasingly, election campaigns have become very tightly managed and it’s rare for the leaders to interact with many “real”, unvetted people. Street walks have become few and far between — predominately because of security concerns.

As he walked through the iconic Freedom Plaza on Monday afternoon, Albanese’s large security contingent were close by as he was greeted like a rockstar.

He stopped in stores, posed for dozens of selfies, joked with a young boy about his oversized jumper (quipping: “you haven’t got any hands! Where are your hands?”), cuddled a baby and held up candidate Le’s hand defiantly in front of the iconic Pai Lau gate.

Albanese’s visit to Fowler in the last week, where every minute is crucial, shows that Labor hasn’t ruled out picking up seats.

Saturday will reveal whether it’s a gamble that’s paid off.