'Humble' Beattie confirms federal tilt

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has introduced Peter Beattie as the brand new candidate for the seat of Forde, riffing on his own catchphrase: "His name's Peter, he's from Queensland and he's here to help as well."

Officially launching Mr Beattie as Labor's star candidate on Thursday afternoon in Forde, Mr Rudd praised the former Queensland premier as "rolled gold Queensland".

The Liberal National Party currently holds the seat on a margin of just 1.6 per cent.

Mr Rudd also dismissed Mr Beattie's former criticisms of him - which include jibes about Mr Rudd's media and political manoeuvrings.

"That's OK, that's life in the Labor party," Mr Rudd said. "Guess what, for me, it's water off a duck's back. It doesn't really matter."

Mr Beattie told reporters that if he was elected to Forde he would buy and move into a home in the area immediately.

"I believe in being part of the electorate," he said.

He said he was running because he wanted to see the Labor Party in Queensland get a "fair go" - pointing to Labor's seven seats in State Parliament and eight in Federal Parliament.

Dumped ALP Forde candidate Des Hardman, with Kevin Rudd. Photo: @Des_Hardman/Twitter

Mr Beattie told reporters that he was happy to be a "humble backbencher" if he was elected.

Mr Beattie's star candidacy has pushed out Labor's previous candidate in Forde, Des Hardman.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Hardman released a statement saying he was standing aside "in the interest of ensuring a Labor victory".

Mr Rudd said he had telephoned Mr Beattie several days ago, asking him to add his "weight" to the federal campaign in Queensland.

He said the specific seat was left up to the Labor Party's organisation wing.

Mr Beattie's has previously said his wife Heather would kill him if he returned to politics.

But on Thursday, Mrs Beattie said she was "very happy" to support her husband and Mr Rudd.  

"I agreed with Peter that we needed to put Australia first," she said. 

Mr Beattie said he had a tough fight ahead of him in Forde, where he will take on the Liberal National Party's Bert van Manen. Mr van Manen won the seat in 2010 after working in banking.

The former Queensland premier said he was the "underdog" in the seat and would have to prove himself.

Mr Beattie said it was a measure of the Prime Minister's leadership that he was prepared to put their differences aside to call him up to Forde. "Frankly, I was impressed that he did," he said.

Mr Beattie said that he would not be harking back to his former stunt-like ways in the campaign.

You can expect me to be "boring", "hardworking" and "trying to win the support of the people of Forde".