Australia’s PM calls national election
SYDNEY: Australia’s prime minister on Thursday called a national election for May 18, firing the starting gun on what promises to be a bareknuckle campaign focused heavily on climate and the economy.
The vote will decide whether the conservative government gets a rare third term in office - and whether embatled incumbant Scot Morrison can beat the odds and hang on to power.
Polls have consistently shown his centre-let Labor opponents with a commanding lead, suggesting a new adminstration led by former union leader Bill Shorten. But Australian elections are oten tight affairs, with a couple dozen marginal seats deciding the outcome, and both party leaders have low approval ratings and have struggled to connect with voters.
Morrison took office less than a year ago in a coup by the hard right of his Liberal party and has struggled to bridge a divide between party moderates and nationalist populists who have grown in confidence in the age of Donald Trump.
He has tried to paper over these divisions and make sure the campaign focus is squarely on the party’s economic record.
“We live in the best country in the world,” Morrison said making the election announcement in Canberra. “Our future depends on a strong economy.” “Who do you trust to deliver that strong economy?” he asked.
For all purposes, campaigning is already well underwayandhasalreadybeendeeplyacrimonious.
Election ads have been running for weeks, and - like the United States - Australian politics has taken on the air of a permanent campaign with the focus on how policies will play with voters as much as how well they work.
Last week Morrison’s minority government released a prospective budget replete with tax cuts designed to woo voters and the first budget surplus in more than a decade.
Since then, any opportunity in front of a camera or microphone has been an opportunity to repeat the claim that a high-tax Labour government would destroy jobs and businesses.
In truth, ater 27 years of growth, the Australian economy is facing increasing headwinds, and whoever wins power is likely to contend with slower growth, rising unemployment, falling revenues and wobbly housing and commodities markets.
Labor for its part has zeroed in on centrist voters frustrated that they elected a moderate in former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull only for the Liberals to swap horses midstream to the more hardline Morrison.