Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visited Governor- General Sir Peter Cosgrove on Sunday to ask that both houses of parliament be dissolved and a general election called for July 2, media reported.
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Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten, a 48-year-old ambitious former union chief, is aiming to add his name to the prime ministerial list when he takes on the Liberal Party’s Turnbull in what is tipped to be a tightly contested vote.
Beginning a two-month election campaign, the prime minister said a Labor Party win in the upcoming polls would prevent the Australian economy diversifying from a mining industry that has been hit hard recently.
Mr Shorten said Labor would fight the election on creating jobs with “reasonable conditions” and putting families and small business before big corporations.
Under provisions spelt out in the Australian constitution, the government can call for a “double dissolution” if the Senate twice blocks a bill that has been passed by the lower house. “This election is a choice about what sort of Australia that we want to live in”, Shorten told reporters in the southern island state of Tasmania.
“But we must embark on these times, embrace these opportunities, meet these challenges, with a plan and we have laid out a clear economic plan to enable us to succeed”.
NEW polls out this morning show the battle for the July 2 election will be extremely tight.
The widely expected announcement was the latest chapter in the turbulent world of Australian politics, where a revolving door of leaders saw multi-millionaire former banker Turnbull, 61, become the fourth prime minister in just over two years when he ousted Abbott in September.
The coalition has traditionally campaigned on its purported strength in economic management, with Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison pledging to boost jobs and growth when they handed down their first budget Tuesday.
“Look at the Labor Party – everything they are doing…is absolutely calculated to stop our economic progress in its tracks”, Mr Turnbull said.
Represented in a word cloud, Mr Turnbull’s emphasis is clear.
It is the first early election in which all 76 Senate seats are up for grabs as well as the 150 House of Representatives seats since 1987.
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The post-budget poll of 1739 people taken from Thursday to Saturday gave no lift to the coalition’s primary vote which is still at 41 per cent for the third consecutive survey while Labor gained one point to 37 per cent.
