Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has accepted a request from Julia Gillard to join the federal election campaign.
Addressing the media in Brisbane this afternoon, Mr Rudd said he would meet the Prime Minister on Saturday and join the campaign on Sunday if his health permitted.
Mr Rudd said while things had been difficult for him and his family since he was deposed from office, he could not let Opposition Leader Tony Abbott "slide" into the prime ministership.
"The truth is this. It has been a very difficult time for our family," he said in a lengthy statement to journalists.
"I fought for too many years to help build our country up,” Mr Rudd said.
"I haven't got everything right - but you know something? I don't intend to stand idly by and simply watch Mr Abbott tear all that down."
Mr Rudd warned that another global financial crisis was a "very real possibility".
"I am haunted by the words of Peter Costello years ago that he could never make Mr Abbott his treasurer because Mr Abbott had no interest in the economy ... that's not good enough"
Mr Rudd said he had had a difficult time since being toppled by Ms Gillard.
"But there are much bigger things at stake than my future and that is our country's future," he said.
"Elections are a serious business - they are about who governs ... they are about fundamental choices, about who we put into power.
"There is a real danger at present because of the rolling political controversy about myself that Mr Abbott is simply able to slide quickly into the office of prime minister without any proper scrutiny ... or any real debate about how he would govern Australia.
"I can't be silent while knowing Mr Abbott has opposed those measures which kept Australia out of the global recession.”
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