In a radio interview on the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Tuesday morning, Mr Abbott was asked "have you thought about your victory speech if you were to win?"

"The truth is yes," Mr Abbott replied.

Mr Abbott later played down his radio comment.

He told reporters in Bundamba in Queensland on Tuesday: "I've thought about a defeat speech as well."

Mr Abbott, who polls suggest will win the election convincingly, has insisted repeatedly that he is taking nothing for granted and that Labor could win.

"I have always said that winning a national election from opposition is like climbing Mount Everest," Mr Abbott said in Victoria earlier this month.

"I take nothing for granted," he said.

But the Opposition Leader has let his guard slip several times recently.

The day after his budget-in-reply speech last week, Mr Abbott reportedly told a business lunch in Sydney: "I look forward to seeing you in a new capacity in the not-too-distant future."

During April's charity Pollie Pedal event, Mr Abbott said he had told Ara Cresswell, the CEO of Carers Australia, that "it would be good if they had the chance to chew the ear of a Prime Minister on Pollie Pedal next year".

The Opposition Leader has contended with hubris within his own office.

In late April, Mr Abbott was forced to demote his director of policy, Mark Roberts, after the top-level staffer threatened to use his position in a future Abbott government to ensure a cut in funding to an indigenous education body.

Journalist and Sky News commentator Peter Van Onselen alleged that an "intoxicated" Dr Roberts had approached himself and Andrew Penfold, head of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, at a Qantas-Emirates function in Sydney.

Mr Van Onselen claimed that during the ensuing conversation, the adviser told Mr Penfold that his organisation's public funding would have its "throat" cut under an Abbott Coalition government.

with AAP