The debate comes a day after Labor's campaign lost two candidates, after a Queensland candidate quit and Mr Rudd was forced to dump the candidate for a safe Victorian seat.
The economy is set to dominate tonight's debate and set the tone for week two of the election campaign, with the Treasury's pre-election economic and fiscal outlook (PEFO) due on Tuesday.
Mr Rudd will spend much of the day preparing for the debate - he has been working on his approach with veteran Labor Senator John Faulkner and others.
Labor hopes he can use the event to force Tony Abbott to detail the sort of cuts he would make.
The Coalition insists it will release its savings in good time before the election, but not until after its politics are revealed.
Mr Abbott says he will refer to figures from the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and Treasury's PEFO.
The Coalition has previously raised doubts about the independence of Treasury's costings and indicated it will seek further advice from elsewhere.
Mr Abbott says some policies that are not put to the Parliamentary Budget Office will still be rigorously tested.
"Those that haven't been validated, we will have a process and independent process of validation and I don't think anyone will be in doubt as to the credibility of our figures," he said.
The Opposition Leader will take part in Sydney's City2Surf along with thousands of others this morning before flying to Canberra to prepare for the leaders' debate.
Mr Abbott has told Channel Nine he is not being too competitive about the City2Surf race.
"As long as there's one fella I beat in about four weeks' time," he said.
Liberal sources say Mr Abbott is the underdog and they expect a slick performance from Mr Rudd in tonight's debate.
But they argue the Prime Minister is better at talk than action.
The leaders' debate will be broadcast tonight at 6:30pm (AEST) on ABC1 and ABC News 24.
Rudd forced to dump candidate
Yesterday, Labor's election campaign was hit with the loss of two candidates in one day, just a week into the campaign.
Mr Rudd has been forced to dump the Labor Party's candidate for the safe Victorian seat of Hotham, Geoff Lake, over his failure to disclose a verbal altercation with a colleague 11 years ago.
Meanwhile, Labor's charge for the north Queensland seat of Kennedy, Ken Robertson, has stood aside over comments he made about Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Last night Mr Rudd issued a statement saying he had requested the party's national executive remove Mr Lake as the endorsed Labor candidate for Hotham.
Mr Lake, a Monash councillor, last month won a bitterly fought pre-selection to contest the seat being vacated by long-serving Labor frontbencher Simon Crean.
Mr Crean's former seat is currently a very safe Labor electorate, with a swing of 14 per cent.
But Mr Lake lost the Prime Minister's confidence after he was forced to apologise for verbally abusing a fellow councillor during an argument at a Monash Council meeting 11 years ago.
News Corporation newspapers reported that Mr Lake apologised to the woman at the time and regretted his actions.
"I was a young mayor and I got angry one night and I spoke to her in angry way, which I acknowledged then and I acknowledge now," Mr Lake said, quoted by News Corp.
Mr Rudd says he has stepped in.
"Earlier today, I asked the National Secretary to report on a range of allegations concerning Mr Lake's conduct in his previous career in local government - in particular his conduct in relation to fellow councillors at the City of Monash Council," Mr Rudd said.
"The National Secretary has informed me that he is not satisfied that there has been full disclosure about these previous matters.
"Based on the investigation, I have concluded that it is inappropriate for Mr Lake to continue as the endorsed Labor Candidate for Hotham."
Robertson quits race for Kennedy
Mr Robertson released a short statement yesterday saying he had decided not to contest the September 7 poll after he reportedly accused Mr Abbott of being racist.
"I apologise to Mr Abbott for my statement yesterday. While in far-north Queensland we like to use colourful language, my comments were unacceptable," he said.
"I have today stood aside as the Labor candidate for Kennedy in the interests of ensuring that this matter does not distract from Labor's campaign for a fairer Australia."
The Opposition says the lose of two candidates shows the Prime Minister has failed to fix Labor's internal problems.
Shadow attorney-general George Brandis says Mr Rudd has failed to reform the Labor Party, despite promising to do so when he retook the prime ministership.
"Plainly there is a process issue here. It hasn't gone away," he said.
"Mr Rudd promised that there would be a new way at this election campaign, that he would undertake root-and-branch reform of the Labor Party.
"But, it was all talk, because it plainly hasn't happened."
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