Australia PM Gillard Faces Tobacco Fights

The tobacco industry and crucial marginal voters turned on Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard Wednesday as she struggled to get her flagging election campaign back on the front foot.

Gillard continued her assault on conservative rival Tony Abbott's economic credentials as the race to the August 21 polls hit the halfway mark, warning Australians that he presented a "pretty frightening vision of the future".

Abbott again refused to debate her on the economy, saying Gillard had missed her chance to lock in a sparring match and he was now too busy.

But it was primarily bad news for former industrial lawyer Gillard, with tobacco giants Philip Morris and British American Tobacco throwing their considerable resources behind a campaign against her plan for plain cigarette packs.

Gillard's ruling Labor party has already hiked taxes on cigarettes by 25 percent and her world-first plan to ban logos and advertising on packaging prompted election protest ads by the Alliance of Australian Retailers (AAR).

"There's no credible evidence that this policy will stop people smoking Marlboro, Kiss, that it will stop kids, young people, taking up cigarette smoking," AAR spokeswoman Sheryle Moon told public broadcaster ABC.

"It will just make it more difficult for retailers to do their business."

Moon said it was no secret that "cigarette manufacturers are providing financial support to the (AAR) alliance", but argued that Labor's policy would put small businesses and jobs at risk.

Abbott's Liberal/National coalition has received millions of dollars in donations from the tobacco industry and Gillard demanded he assure Australians that he was not involved in the campaign or beholden to industry demands.

"The Liberal party has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of pro-smoking campaign," Abbott said, adding that he would "certainly consider" bringing in plain packaging himself if elected to office.

Gillard is already facing attack ads from the mining lobby over her proposed 30 percent tax on coal and iron ore profits.

The two-month row over the so-called "super tax" so badly damaged the Labor party's brand they dumped former leader Kevin Rudd and installed Gillard as leader, hoping for a bounce in the polls.

But Gillard's short-lived honeymoon with the public appeared to be firmly over Wednesday, with poll analysis showing her popularity was dangerously lagging in the key states which will decide the knife-edge vote.

Welsh-born Gillard was behind in the resources-rich states of Queensland and Western Australia (WA), and in New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous region.

Though she swiftly resolved the mining tax row its impacts were still being felt in Queensland and WA, with swings away from Labor giving Abbott a 54 to 46 percent lead in both states.

Abbott was also ahead in NSW, his home state, with a three-point shift to the coalition giving him a 51 to 49 percent lead on Labor.

"If the swings against Labor and Ms Gillard were uniform in Queensland, NSW and Western Australia, the coalition would win the 17 seats it needs to unseat the Gillard government because there are so many marginal seats in those states," The Australian said, in a story accompanying the analysis.

Even Gillard sympathisers appeared to be turning on the flame-haired leader, with a protest group taking to the streets in Melbourne called "Redheads for Climate Action".

"When Julia Gillard became Prime Minister it was a great day for rangas globally," said spokeswoman Natalie Jamieson, using an Australian colloquialism comparing redheads to orangutans.

"However, she?s let us down badly on climate change. With our pale skin and delicate features we?re worried that we?ll fry unless something is done to reduce greenhouse pollution in Australia."

Gillard has been accused of going soft on climate change, swapping an emissions trading scheme for consultations with a "citizens' assembly" of 150 ordinary Australians on strategies to counter global warming.