Anthony Albanese​ has been quietly sitting on an ace in his battle to retain his seat of Grayndler against the Greens.

He pulled it out on Saturday morning, as Labor icon and former prime minister Paul Keating made a rare appearance on the hustings at the Petersham Town Hall – in the heart of Grayndler – before a handpicked audience of ALP campaign workers.

Like an old war horse rediscovering his taste for battle, Mr Keating said it had "got up [his] nose" to hear the Greens calling themselves the "natural home of progressive mainstream Australian voters" and that he was "sick of their humbug".

Invoking the highlights of Labor's record on the environment under his and Bob Hawke's watch, Mr Keating declared, "this is the real conservation party ... we are more Green than they are."

"I'll tell you about the Greens, they are a bunch of opportunistic Trots hiding behind a gum tree trying to pretend they are the Labor party."

"Like the DLP of old, [which] split off the Labor vote and gave it to the conservatives always pretending that they were more Labor than the Labor party, the Greens are trying to split off the progressive vote in Australia pretending that they are more Labor than the Labor party," he said.

"The Labor party is not a protest party, it's a party of government and that's what the Greens have never understood, they are a protest party ... but their game is to nobble the party of government that could actually make changes."

A little more stooped than in his heyday, his voice a tad huskier, Mr Keating nevertheless packed plenty of punches in a half-hour speech that got plenty of cheers from the 200 or so party campaign workers who had gathered for a last weekend of door-knocking in Grayndler before next Saturday's election.

Flanked by orange balloons and campaign posters of Mr Albanese, Mr Keating ran through a "greatest hits" list of his and Bob Hawke's economic reforms, saying these had laid the groundwork for the 25 years of economic growth that followed.

"Without Paul Keating, his vision and courage in economic reform, that would not have happened – it's as simple as that," Mr Albanese said afterwards.

The former deputy prime minister told Fairfax it was "fantastic" having Mr Keating support his Grayndler campaign. "He is as great a drawcard as anyone in the party, someone who Labor party people truly love and admire and respect ... Paul does not make a lot of appearances, he is selective, but I have known him for a long time ... I regard him as a friend and friends help out."

He laughed off suggestions that Mr Keating's endorsement of him might signal support for a possible tilt by Mr Albanese at the Labor leadership post election. "This is Paul Keating giving support to me for next Saturday," he said.

Mr Albanese presented Mr Keating with a bottle of "Albo ale" at the end of the event, joking that there was no room for vineyards in Grayndler "but we do have room for craft brewing."