Abbott prepares for a tougher battle Opposition leader Tony Abbott lambasted the change in the Labor leadership, saying the Australian public abhorred the turmoil in the government and urged for an election to be called at the earliest opportunity for voters to deliver their verdict. He demanded that Mr Rudd clarify when the election date is, saying he would not be playing ""parliamentary games"," a strong indication he would not attempt to force a vote of no confidence in Kevin Rudd's administration. Australians ""need an election so the people, not the powerbrokers, not the faceless men"" to determine who forms government, he said. New focus: Tony Abbott is changing tack. Speaking to packed press conference shortly after 11pm, Tony Abbott said the Australian people deserved ""better than this"." ""Just a couple of simple facts: in 2007, you voted for Kevin and got Julia. If you vote for the Labor Party in 2013, who knows who you'll end up with,"" he said. ""Who do you, the people, trust to stop the boats, to abolish the carbon tax and the mining tax and to get the budget back into the black?"" It is believed the Coalition will divert election resources from the vacant seats of Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, who on Thursday both announced their decision to quit parliament, and increase focus on winning marginal seats in Sydney and Melbourne to fight a much ""tighter"" election against Kevin Rudd. A senior Coalition source said the leadership change would restore part of the Labor base - many of whom will greet his resurrection as ""righting the wrong"" when he was knifed three years ago. Tony Abbott's forces will remind the electorate of descriptions of Mr Rudd by his own colleagues, including ""a psychopath with a giant ego"," but concede he will be a more formidable opponent. Liberal Party strategists concede Mr Rudd is hugely popular in ethnically diverse seats, particularly among Chinese and Arab voters, as evidenced by his hero's welcome recently in the southern and south-western Sydney Labor seats of Reid, Barton and McMahon. All three seats, on margins of 2.7per cent, 6.9per cent and 7.8per cent respectively, were in danger of being lost under a Gillard-led Labor but would likely be held under Mr Rudd, polling suggests. Fairfax Media research of all Nielsen polls since February showed Labor under Julia Gillard was on course to lose 14 seats in NSW and at least three in Victoria. Once-safe Labor seats right up to the Blacktown-based electorate of Chifley, held by Ed Husic with a margin of 12.3per cent, were under threat. ""Rudd will go better with ethnically diverse groups and those groups tend to be in marginal seats so the complexion changes considerably,"" a Coalition source familiar with election planning said. The party is now confident that Tony Windsor's seat will fall to Barnaby Joyce and Mr Oakeshott's electorate of Lyne will be captured by Nationals candidate David Gillespie. Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane said recently the party was ""ready for any contingency"" and would not be caught on the hop by a late change. Comments by senior ministers including Treasurer Wayne Swan and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy about Mr Rudd being a Labor saboteur will be used against the ALP during the election campaign. Mr Swan savaged Mr Rudd in February last year before his first failed challenge. ""The party has given Kevin Rudd all the opportunities in the world and he wasted them with his dysfunctional decision-making and his deeply demeaning attitude towards other people including our caucus colleagues,"" he said. ""He was the party's biggest beneficiary then its biggest critic; but never a loyal or selfless example of its values and objectives.""