TONY Abbott has begun his address to the party faithful in West Australia by acknowledging all the women in his life.
"My life is full of strong women," the Opposition leader told the Liberal Party conference in Perth.
He acknowledged his wife, Margaret, as an "independently-minded career woman".
He then made mention of his "three powerful women" daughters, his female chief of staff and his press secretary.
"And the strongest woman of them all, my female deputy leader," Mr Abbott said, referring to Julie Bishop, also the Opposition's foreign affairs spokeswoman.
The comments follow two new polls that suggest Prime Minister Julia Gillard is harnessing the female vote.
Labor is ahead of the Coalition 54 to 46 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, according to the latest Nielson poll.
That lead increases to 58-42 among women voters, and is tied 50-50 with men.
Ms Gillard also has a 28-point lead as preferred leader among women, dropping to a 14-point lead among men.
A separate poll in The West Australian also suggests the female vote could deliver Labor the key marginal seat of Perth.
Mr Abbott announced an extra $50 million for community crime prevention, including funding for extra CCTV cameras.
"This is a good example of the Coalition intelligently using limited budget resources," he said.
He outlined other Coalition policies on issues including the economy, asylum seekers, climate change and the mining tax.
"The mining tax is a moonbeam from the larger lunacy, it should not happen.
"Ladies and gentleman we stopped the boats before and we can stop the boats again.
"And we have a clear policy on climate change ... (to) sensibly reduce emissions in ways which do not damage our economy."
He accused Ms Gillard of being "utterly deceptive" on climate change, warning that she will introduce a carbon tax.
Mr Abbott said the next election is easily winnable.
"We are not expected to win this election but we can," he said, noting the electorate will not want to reward a "bad and incompetent government".
"The public don't want to humiliate or embarrass our first female prime minister but they don't want another three year's of a shambolic government.
"We owe it to the Australian people to give it our very best shot," Mr Abbott said, labelling the election as the "supreme challenge of his life".
