Sticking closely to the script of a speech circulated in advance, Mr Albanese set out to stress the differences between Labor and the Coalition, while reassuring swinging voters that "my team and I are seeking renewal, not revolution".

His major pledges were to "save" the Hunter GP Access after hours medical service, to "back" the Glendale transport interchange, to "actually get work under way on high speed rail", to have trains "built here again" through a national rail manufacturing plan and to "restore respect, humility, decency and accountability to political life" through a National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Mr Albanese said a Labor government would have a $500 million "down payment" in its first budget to "begin corridor acquisition, planning and early works", with the corridor from Newcastle to Sydney - with stops at the Central Coast - "its first priority".

He also took numerous swings at the prime minister, saying: "If we want to put years of failures and scandals and rorts and waste and blame shifting and buck-passing and smirking contempt behind us, then Australia needs to put Scott Morrison and his government behind us."

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Bar Beach was packed with people on a sunny Sunday cooled slightly by a strengthening nor-easterly wind, but the need to keep masked for COVID protection meant there was less interaction than usual for a politician with decades of experience in mingling with the public.

After speaking for about 35 minutes at the surf lifesaving club and posing for photos with Labor MPs and federal candidates, Mr Albanese was driven to Hamilton railway station to be filmed and photographed walking up and down the platform, as a backdrop for the high-speed rail announcement.

Sporting a fashionable set of glasses and a large-checks sports jacket and chinos, Mr Albanese was bare-faced for his speech.

Otherwise, the nation's alternative prime minister was hidden behind a black COVID mask with a small South Sydney Rabbitohs logo.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison took the Coalition to what was then a shock victory on May 18, 2019, winning 77 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives and taking 51.5 per cent of the national two-party preferred vote, a net increase of one seat on the 2016 result.

Most opinion polls have had Labor ahead of the government since the start of last year and Mr Albanese honed in yesterday on what he called "the fundamental flaws in the judgement and the character of Scott Morrison".

"Do you believe this tired, divided, say-anything, do-nothing government deserves a second decade in power?" Mr Albanese asked.

"Does anyone think they'll get better with another three years in office? Or do you believe the country needs and deserves a change? My team and I are seeking renewal, not revolution.

"Because our plans for change are not about tearing-down everything that has gone before but rather building up the enduring values which make this a great country. Our policies are based on the best qualities of the Australian people: compassion, decency, hard work and a fair go. No one held back, and no one left behind."

Labor's infrastructure spokesperson, Ballarat MP Catherine King, came to Newcastle to be with Mr Albanese, who will campaign for Labor candidates Daniel Repacholi, who hopes to hold the sprawling seat of Hunter after the retirement of Joel Fitzgibbon, and Wyong Hospital doctor Gordon Reid, who is challenging the sitting Liberal member Lucy Wicks in the Central Coast seat of Robertson.

Liberal candidate Brooke Vitnell - challenging Labor's Meryl Swanson in Paterson - criticised Mr Albanese's speech as "big promises with no details".

A spokesperson for Mr Albanese disputed criticisms of the high-speed rail announcement as something that would never be built, saying the Labor leader had acknowledged a lack of progress previously, but as a self-described "infrastructure nerd" he was determined to see it built.

In his speech, Mr Albanese said he was Australia's first infrastructure minister "and if I'm elected prime minister, I want ours to be the first government that actually gets work underway on high speed rail".

Mr Albanese blamed the Morrison government for a "refusal" to save the GP Access after-hours service but a spokesperson for Health Minister Greg Hunt said this was "knowingly false" and accused Labor of "slashing" mental health services and PBS drug listings when last in government.

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