Prime Minister Scott Morrison spruiked a plan to create 1.3 million jobs over the next five years on the second day of the election campaign, while Labor leader Anthony Albanese promised more support for mental health care.
Mr Morrison said the Coalition's new jobs pledge covered multiple sectors of the economy, citing the defence industry and food and beverage manufacturing.
"We've worked hard to get to the point where we can really take advantage of the economic opportunities that this country now has in front of us," he told reporters on Tuesday in Parramatta in Sydney's west.
He said the country's budget remains strong as people are moving off welfare payments and becoming tax-paying workers.
"We've been able to get people off welfare and we've been able to get them into work," Mr Morrison said.
"You know how to balance a budget - you get people off welfare where they're receiving benefits and you turn them into workers, where they pay taxes."
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia was "staring into the economic abyss".
He said Australia's unemployment rate is expected to plunge to 3.75 per cent growth, a rate that he pins down to the success of the Coalition's economic management.
"If you think this is luck, you are wrong," he said.
'One of the most diverse communities'
The prime minister is campaigning in the seat of Parramatta, one of Australia's most multicultural electorates held by Labor's Julie Owens since 2004.
Since Ms Owens' announcement to retire, the Opposition selected Kevin Rudd's former adviser Andrew Charlton to take up the candidacy.
The decision to parachute Mr Charlton - who previously lived in the affluent suburb of Bellevue Hill in Sydney's east before recently moving to the electorate - to contest the seat stirred dismay among residents and local Labor branch members. Ms Owen's former staffer Durga Owen was considered the frontrunner for the seat ahead of preselection.
It is the second time in a year that the Labor Party has overruled local branch members in western Sydney to parachute an outside candidate ahead of one from a non-English speaking background.
Mr Charlton is up against the Liberal's Maria Kovacic, who would be looking to seize the western Sydney seat which Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said was "one of the most diverse communities in Australia".
The prime minister said Ms Kovacic, who is a small business owner, is looking to be an inspiration to women in western Sydney.
"She wanted to encourage other women in western Sydney to realise their hopes, their dreams, their ambitions, for what they could achieve for financial independence and ensuring they could step forward with their own entrepreneurship," he said.
'Shake it off'
Labor leader Anthony Albanese continues to campaign in Tasmania, where he outlined a plan to reinstate a 50 per cent regional loading for bulk-billed telehealth psychiatric consultations.
He is trying to put day one of the campaign behind him after he was unable to cite both the Reserve Bank of Australia's cash rate and the national unemployment rate during a media conference in Launceston.
"From time to time, if ever I make a mistake, I will own it and I will accept responsibility," he told reporters in Longford on Tuesday.
"But as I quote, the remarks of day one of the campaign, here is a Taylor Swift comment for you. My theory is, 'shake it off'."
But Mr Morrison capitalised on the Opposition's early fumble, saying Labor's "real problem" is their lack of economic plan.
"Leaders will not get every single figure right. That's not really the issue here," he said.
"The issue is, if there's something Anthony Albanese should be apologising for, it should be that he doesn't have an economic plan."
Mr Frydenberg accused Mr Albanese of not listening to his federal budget speech last month where he cited the national unemployment rate.
"Yesterday Australians were reminded by Anthony Albanese of why he is out of his depth," he said.
But the Labor leader found an unlikely ally in former Liberal prime minister John Howard, who said he did not see what the fuss was about.
"Anthony Albanese didn't know the unemployment rate? So what?" he said while campaigning with cabinet minister Ken Wyatt in Western Australia.
Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the unemployment rate did not tell the full story.
"The defining feature of the labour market right now is that even though we've got the unemployment rate falling in welcome ways, we're still not generating the real wage growth that we need to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living," he told ABC radio.
"The government doesn't have a plan to deal with the skills shortages and labour shortages that come with an unemployment rate at four per cent."
NZ opposition backtracks on Labor criticism
A member of New Zealand's opposition party has admitted he should not have intervened in Australia's federal election by questioning Labor's policy on aged care.
National Party health spokesman Shane Reti expressed frustration over New Zealand's own nursing shortages, and said he feared Labor's plan for a registered nurse in every aged care home could strip New Zealand of key workers.
"If Australia is going to significantly ramp up its demand, then as its closest neighbour it might look towards us to meet those demands," he told the ABC on Tuesday morning.
Speaking from Wellington later that day, Dr Reti said he was not backing away from the comments, but should have picked his audience better.
"I was stating the obvious," he said.
"Any jurisdiction which thinks the answer to their nursing crisis is New Zealand's nursing crisis is going to be a challenge for us.
"But what I won't be doing is taking enquiries from Australian media while they're in campaign."
Labor's shadow foreign affairs minister Penny Wong dismissed the concerns raised by Dr Reti.
She said skilled migration was one recommendation put forward in the royal commission into aged care and quality safety.
"This is a recommendation that arises out of the situation that we see older Australians facing," she told the ABC on Tuesday.
"We need to train more Australians to get into this workforce, and yes, as is currently the place, migration will be part of the story but not all of the story."
National Party leader Christopher Luxon said he was not aware of Dr Reti's comments when asked about them by reporters on Tuesday.
Kristina Keneally tests positive for COVID-19
Shadow home affairs minister and candidate for the NSW seat of Fowler, Kristina Keneally, has tested positive for COVID-19.
Her infection means Ms Keneally is ruled out of public appearances during the first week of the election campaign due to isolation requirements.
"This morning I woke up feeling rotten and tested positive for COVID," she posted on Twitter.
Senator Keneally — a former NSW premier — is attempting to make the transition from NSW senator to the lower house. Fowler is a safe Labor seat previously held by Chris Hayes, who is leaving politics.
Mr Hayes had backed Vietnamese-Australian lawyer Tu Le to replace him in Fowler, which encompasses suburbs with large multicultural populations, but was overruled by the NSW Labor Party. Senator Keneally had been living in Sydney's northern beaches before recently relocating to the electorate.
Mr Albanese was forced to defend Labor's diversity credentials at the time, saying that Senator Keneally "was born in the United States, came to Australia, and is another great Australian success story of a migrant who's come here and became the New South Wales premier".
With AAP.
