Just as Labor's lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding was at long odds to defeat lord mayor Graham Quirk next year, Labor's Mr Soorley was not expected to win the 1991 election against the popular Liberal Ms Atkinson.

"Way back in 1990, when I started the 1991 campaign, there were eight (Labor) councillors and myself," he said.

"I think there are eight councillors today and Rod, so I think there are lots of similarities."

Speaking at the "kick start" of Mr Harding's campaign on Saturday, Mr Soorley said Labor was in a good position to defeat Cr Quirk and his Liberal National Party councillors and candidates.

And Mr Soorley, who was lord mayor for 13 years through most of the 1990s and early 2000s, said Labor had a clear issue on which to focus.

"It was the rates issue that blew Sallyanne and the Liberals away (in 1991)," he said.

"This time, I can assure you, it will be development. Development development development.

"So in every ward, the ones we want to win, we have to go get pictures and examples so we can actually localise and personalise the development abuse that Quirky's doing."

Mr Soorley hinted it could be a similar campaign to one levelled against him after his first term in City Hall.

"Many of you were not around in 1994 when (the Liberal Party) ran the 'Soorley's sardine city' campaign," he said.

"It didn't succeed and we did some fine-tuning of our policy to make sure it didn't succeed, but if we were running a sardine city in 1994 I don't know what this mob are doing."

Mr Harding appeared to take heed of Mr Soorley's advice as he told about 60 supporters at Labor headquarters in South Brisbane that "after 12 long years" it was time for a change at City Hall.

"No-one could ever peg Rod Harding as being anti-development – for goodness sake, I worked at Macquarie Bank," he said.

"…Take a walk down Fish Lane in South Brisbane, now that's going to progress into a fantastic development for the city.

"We need the right development, we need development that fits within the heart and soul of our suburban communities – that's the critical element."

Mr Soorley said Mr Harding could also draw inspiration from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's state election victory in January.

"This is easy in comparison to what happened a couple of months ago," he said.

"From six (sic) to eight to nine in 89 (seats in Parliament), it was a pretty awesome task, but eight out of 26 (council wards), that's much easier."

Ms Palaszczuk became Labor leader after the 2012 election with a team of just seven Labor MPs, which grew by two during the term thanks to the Redcliffe and Stafford byelections.

Labor MPs and councillors hit the streets and flooded social media on Saturday morning showing their support for Mr Harding.

It was Labor's first concerted, coordinated effort to introduce Mr Harding to the electorate, with about 300 party volunteers taking to Brisbane's streets.