Australians will head to the polls for a federal election on May 3.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the election date following a visit to Governor-General Sam Mostyn early this morning.
A five-week campaign will count down to the poll for all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 Senate places.
Mr Albanese is looking to become the first prime minister since John Howard to win back-to-back elections.
No party has been booted from government after one term for nearly a century, but Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is hoping for a shift.
Mr Dutton has led the coalition through three years of opposition to be within striking distance of the government.
While the election was expected to be held earlier in April, the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred in Queensland and northern NSW meant the prime minister held off making an election call due to the natural disaster.
The delayed election call also led to the government handing down a budget, which unveiled tax cuts for all workers from July 2026.
Mr Dutton used his budget reply on Thursday to roll out a halving of the fuel excise for one year as a cost-of-living measure.
Announcing the election today has allowed the government to steal the spotlight from the opposition’s budget reply. The date was widely leaked just before the speech in a tactic to distract commentators and media from the set event.
Expressing his optimism for the nation, Albanese was critical of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for deliberately invoking fear in his approach to the campaign, and criticised him for not taking up offers of briefings on serious matters of national security.
“Peter Dutton last night gave a Budget Reply that was all about fear.”
“I want a campaign that is about policy,” Mr Albanese said.
“Now on 3 May, you choose the way forward.
“Your vote has never been more important.
“And your choice has never been more clear. This election is a choice between Labor’s plan to keep building or Peter Dutton’s promise to cut. That is the choice.”
Many polls, pundits and commentators are pointing to a likely minority government or hung parliament result, however, the New England Times Engage Poll – which uses a different methodology to most other polls – has repeatedly pointed to a comfortable win for Labor, with no change to the National Party retaining New England and Parkes.
ABC Election Analyst Antony Green said this morning that a 1% swing against the Labor Party could lose them government, but the real risks are if their vote collapses in Victoria, or if they lose any of their regional seats in NSW.
But he cautioned that decline in the major party vote is creating complex dynamic results, and nullifies the usefulness of the national two party vote.
“People looking at the national Two Party Preferred result are going to get a terrible shock if they think that’s predictive of the result,” he said.
Follow all the New England Times coverage of the federal election here or have your say on Engage
See more about the race in New England here
See more about the race in Parkes here