Mr Turnbull called a July 2 election on Sunday afternoon.
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Turnbull’s coalition partner and deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, started his campaign from his stronghold in New England.
FILE – In this July 8, 2014, file photo, Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten smiles at Parliament House in Canberra.
And yesterday on ABC radio, this out-of-touch Prime Minister stunned listeners by announcing his new housing plan: “get yourself some rich parents and get them to shell out”, he said.
Labor leader Bill Shorten: In North Queensland, visiting Cairns in the Liberal seat of Leichhardt, and Townsville in Liberal-held Herbert.
Mr Shorten said he would fight the election on issues “vital to Australians”, such as schools, Medicare and climate change.
In its campaign, Labor will focus on the party’s traditional policy areas of improving health and education.
Turnbull, who ousted his predecessor Tony Abbott in a leadership challenge last September, is considered a moderate in the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition.
The polls also showed a high proportion of voters gave the thumbs down to the budget – the centrepiece of which was a 10-year plan to lower the company tax rate to 25 per cent.
Mr Turnbull rejected suggestions the government’s budget and economic policies were unfair and said after being left a “mountain of debt” and structural deficits.
Turnbull, a 61-year-old self-made multimillionaire, has made economic growth and an uncompromising line on immigration centerpieces of his political platform. The government accuses Shorten of inciting divisive and outdated class warfare. “Shorten if they are elected at this upcoming election”, he added, referring to the more than 20,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia in 2013.
It would take something dramatic to see a change of government, and that’s why the X-factor in South Australia would be making the Coalition nervous. The plan is that investors won’t price as many would-be owner-occupiers out of the housing market. It is one of the biggest influences the federal government has on our economy.
“It is the most exciting time to be an Australian”. A Shorten government would put legislation to allow same-sex marriage to the Parliament within its first 100 days in power.
Asked about the polls on Monday, Turnbull noted that his government had eight weeks to make its case to the Australian people.
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The Prime Minister stressed the Coalition’s record on border protection, its plan to build new 12 submarines and navy frigates as part of its defence industry investment plan, the importance of science and innovation, and the need to pass laws to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission in his re-election pitch. Many voters see him as uncharismatic and overly influenced by the workers’ union movement, where Labor draws most of its support. Labor condemned the inquiry as a politically motivated witch hunt. We do. But it is not optional to pay them.
