LABOR leader Kevin Rudd has confirmed he will debate Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday night.

Mr Rudd lost the first battle of the six-week election campaign, giving in to demands to debate Mr Howard in Parliament House's Great Hall.

The Labor leader is standing by his call for at least two more debates before the November 24 election, but confirmed he would take part in the 90-minute televised event.

A more embarrassing blow for Mr Rudd came with the news that Gavan O'Connor, who was dumped as a Labor MP to make way for a union official, launched a scathing attack as he quit the party to stand as an independent.

Mr Howard today seized on Mr O'Connor's decision to quit Labor and contest his Victorian seat of Corio as evidence that a Labor government would be dominated by unionists.

Mr O'Connor accused Labor of being out of touch as he announced his decision to run against the endorsed Labor candidate, ACTU official Richard Marles.

"You all get the spin, you get that beautiful spin that it was all about renewal in Victoria,'' Mr O'Connor, a former farmer and high school teacher, said.

"There ain't no renewal if they're all male, they're all union officials-cum-lawyers-cum-factional hacks.''

Mr Howard said Mr O'Connor was the only person in the parliamentary Labor Party with a farming background.

"And for his pains he's been kicked out and replaced by somebody who holds a senior position in the ACTU,'' Mr Howard said.

"This is the latest example of how former trade union officials have muscled aside long-serving Labor Party members.''

Campaigning in the marginal Adelaide seat of Kingston, Mr Rudd backed Mr Marles.

"Gavan, I've known him a long time. I like him a lot but I disagree with his decision,'' Mr Rudd said.

"Richard Marles I think will be a first-class candidate and member for the seat. I support him 100 per cent.''

Mr Rudd's attack on the Howard Government's campaign tactics suffered a second blow when he was forced to order the pulping of an anti-Liberal pamphlet that personally targeted a government backbencher.

Labor has bombarded the marginal Liberal seat of Wakefield, won by David Fawcett by a slim 0.7 per cent margin in 2004, with leaflets portraying him as a champagne-sipping outsider.

Featuring a 2001 photograph of Mr Fawcett in black-tie with a bottle of wine at a hospital fundraiser, the leaflet said the Liberal MP was not a local as he did not live in the seat.

After days of criticising the Government for negative attacks and scare campaigns, Mr Rudd said the brochure was inappropriate and he had ordered it be withdrawn it from circulation.

"I've asked that the production of that pamphlet cease,'' he said.

"When it comes to individual literature, there's a process involving state and national secretaries that should be tightened up to ensure that ... this doesn't happen again. And I've issued that directive this morning.''

A second pamphlet was put through letterboxes in Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's seat of Mayo, featuring an infamous photo of Mr Downer wearing fishnets and stilettos.

Federal Finance Minister Nick Minchin described the Wakefield leaflet as one of the worst examples of dirty tricks campaigning he had ever seen and said it exposed Mr Rudd as a hypocrite.

"He squeals like a stuck pig whenever we point out that 70 per cent of his front bench are former trade union officials, but Labor people on the ground are issuing these dirty tricks brochures,'' Senator Minchin said.

But Mr Howard also made a slip-up today as he took the campaign fight to Mr Rudd's electorate of Griffith, calling Liberal candidate Craig Thomas "Scott Thomas''.

It is the second time Mr Howard has forgotten a candidate's name this year.

Mr Howard will campaign in Sydney tomorrow while Mr Rudd will be in Canberra.

News Limited

Quote:The Labor leader is standing by his call for at least two more debates before the November 24 election, but confirmed he would take part in the 90-minute televised event.

Is anyone planning to watch the great debate?

Only if my sleeping-pills don't work, and I need something stronger.