The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, will unveil the policy as the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, continues to press home what she said yesterday was her opponent's fundamental weakness - the economy and employment - and demand a second debate.

As expected, the Reserve Bank left interest rates on hold yesterday, prompting Ms Gillard to rebadge the campaign from now until election day as being about the economy.

''On a day like this it brings into sharp relief the fact that economic management is at the centre of this election campaign,'' she said after the official cash rate was left unchanged at 4.5 per cent.

''If we'd done what Mr Abbott had advocated then we'd be in a recession now.''

A senior Labor source said that with the Reserve Bank decision out of the way, the government in effect had just over two weeks to try to impress on voters the scale of the economic disaster they were spared by the moves to stimulate the economy during the financial crisis.

''We've got 2½ weeks to tell people they weren't smashed,'' the source said.

Spruiking the government's response to the global financial crisis risked invoking the insulation debacle and other incidences of waste but it was worth it to promote the bigger picture, the source said. ''I'll tell you what waste is, waste is 9 per cent unemployment.''

Ms Gillard acknowledged this yesterday, saying, ''Not everything went according to plan, not everything was on track.''

''[But] we had a choice. Do you step up? And we said, 'Yes, you do'', and Mr Abbott said, 'No, you don't'.

''When the global financial crisis threatened, we made the better economic choice.''

Mr Abbott's seniors policy today will be badged as an employment and productivity measure and include an incentive payment of $3250 to be paid to employers after they have provided six months' continuous employment to a person aged 50 or over who was registered with Centrelink.

The payment is equivalent to about half the benefit the person would otherwise have received. The scheme would begin on July 1 next and be reviewed after three years.

There are about 90,000 unemployed aged between 50 and 65. About 900,000 people aged 50 to 65 are on some form of government benefit and would potentially be eligible for the incentive payment.

''If just a small fraction of these eligible people took advantage of the incentive payment there would be a significant positive impact on employment levels as well as a saving to taxpayers from reduced benefits and increased taxation revenues,'' Mr Abbott will say.

Ms Gillard pointed out that interest rates were 2.25 percentage points lower than when the Howard government left office. This represented an annual saving on a $300,000 mortgage of $2800, she said.

She repeatedly challenged Mr Abbott to a debate on the economy, saying she was prepared to take him on ''at any time''.

Mr Abbott who had previously demanded three debates, refused repeatedly. He said his schedule was set and he did not intend to make changes. He accused Ms Gillard of being desperate and she accused him of being scared.

The cost of living is a key concern being detected by the focus group research of the two main parties. The polling also shows that neither party is regarded as having a solution to the problem.

Ms Gillard said the interest rate decision would help families.