Australians will go to the polls on September 7.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd returned to Canberra from Brisbane this afternoon and immediately drove to Government House to meet with Governor-General Quentin Bryce and begin a 33-day campaign. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is expected to speak later this afternoon.
Rudd has made trust in economic management the theme of Labor’s re-election campaign, declaring that an economy in transition needs careful management rather than the threat of massive spending cuts from the Coalition.
At his media conference in a freezing Prime Minister’s Courtyard at Parliament House this afternoon after returning from Yarralumla, Rudd framed the election as about himself as a known quantity to voters with experience in handling a major economic transition versus an untrusworthy Abbott supported by special interests — in particular, tobacco companies, which Rudd repeatedly mentioned.
Rudd cited the desire of the community and business to get on with an election as a key reason for calling it on September 7, a week ahead of Julia Gillard’s date of September 14. Foreign Minister Bob Carr would represent Australia at the September 5 G20 meeting in Russia, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also continued to try to frame the contest between himself and Tony Abbott as about old, negative politics of personal attacks and three-word slogans, versus his own, constructive and unifying approach to meeting Australia’s challenges of economic transition.
Rudd counterattacked when asked about the government’s budget position, which it revealed had deteriorated sharply in Friday’s economic statement, with Rudd repeatedly asking why Australia’s credit rating remained at triple A despite the “budget emergency” repeatedly claimed by Abbott.
Rudd also made a point of claiming voters had a good understanding of him, noting they had seen him at his highs and his lows at that very spot — Rudd’s previous media conference in the Prime Minister’s Courtyard was when he cried handing the prime ministership over to Julia Gillard in June 2010.
He also issued the first challenge of the campaign, calling on Abbott to meet him in a debate on Sky News on Monday night.
ABBOTT SAYS RUDD IS ‘MORE OF THE SAME’
Tony Abbott has sought to contrast the unity and stability of the Coalition with the turmoil of the Labor Party in his response, asking voters to look at who is “fair dinkum” in building a better Australia and stopping asylum seekers coming by boat.
“Do you really think Australia needs another three years like the six years we’ve just had?” Abbott said, in a short statement after the Prime Minister at Parliament House.
Abbott committed to “build a country where no one ever feels like a stranger, where the bonds of community are stronger and stronger”, and accused Labor of divisiveness.
Abbott revealed that Liberal federal director Brian Loughnane had written to Labor secretary George Wright to propose a series of debates between the leaders, but appeared to reject the invitation from Rudd and Sky News for a debate tomorrow night.
Neither Abbott nor Rudd gave strong performances in their opening media conferences, with Rudd continuing his habit of reading statements — presumably to curb his tendency to waffle — while Abbott was flat and lifeless, only picking up during the Q&A part of his media conference, where he showed his usual energy. However, they’ll be forgotten as the campaigns unreel over the next five weeks.
Greens leader Christine Milne also addressed the media in Hobart, saying the election was a choice between cruel asylum seeker policies from Labor and the Coalition and the more compassionate approach from the minor party. She said she was confident the party would poll well and Adam Bandt would hold his lower house seat of Melbourne.
THE STAGE WAS SET WITH AGREEMENTS
The signing of an agreement with the President of Nauru yesterday for the tiny island nation to resettle asylum seekers who reach Australia by boat, and an agreement with the Victorian government on education funding reform this morning, appear to have been the last items on Rudd’s action list before calling an election, although education funding is now less of an issue after Abbott’s remarkable backflip on the issue on Friday.
The agreement with Nauru, similar to the one agreed with Papua New Guinea, allows Rudd to claim that there will be additional capacity for maritime arrivals to be transferred permanently offshore, further reinforcing his claim that no maritime arrivals will be resettled in Australia.
The agreement with Victoria on education funding means New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania the ACT and Victoria have all signed up to the overhaul of primary and secondary education funding championed by Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett before Rudd’s return and their exit from politics. In what may be a crucial difference during the election campaign, Tony Abbott has only agreed to preserve Labor’s funding model for four years, when Victoria’s deal with the Commonwealth provides for six years’ worth of funding. Labor will continue to try to exploit the Coalition’s obvious reluctance on the issue.
However, Rudd enters the campaign as the underdog, with Abbott’s Coalition holding a narrow lead that would see Abbott become Prime Minister with a small majority. However, Rudd has dramatically transformed Labor’s chances since returning to the prime ministership on June 25, adding several points to Labor’s primary vote and forcing Abbott to shore up his position with new announcements on asylum seekers and the education funding backflip.
Bring it on, the lets silence the Phoney Opposition once and for all, the gloating is over the Non Policy Party are exposed as divided, negative, carping, losers, – no idea, no tactics, no strategy, no vision, just negativity, vilification and meaningless sloganeering.
Agree. Already Murdoch has brought out Col Allen from NY to kick heads and obviously run a hard campaign in the Terror, Oz and Hun daily blats. Naturally they will play the man and not the ball as will most of the MSN in coming weeks. No policy debate and analysis, no insightful reflection on the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government, no discussion of the grass roots issues affecting the community just relentless sniping and negativity. Given the events in Qld and NSW and to a lesser extent WA with respective state governments will the voters give the ALP a shellacking and then kick the respective state governments out from next year? Time will indeed tell. As Tony said it is really a choice between “a policy” and “no policy” (regardless of whether you believe in the policy or not).
Perhaps the most impressive part of Rudd’s performance, was his willingness to call out the press gallery on their failure to address the real issues on actual policies.
It promises to be a lively campaign.
My worry is that so many people get their news from the MSM. As Steven Haby pointed out, Col Allen is already attacking Rudd – just look at the supposed serious paper, the Oz. Nothing is touted as an achievement or boon for Labor; everything is some criticism, without evening an announcement. Outright hackery from an outright hack’s chain of papers for outright hacks to read.
I think it would be an interesting project commencing from tomorrow to capture the front pages of all the daily papers across the country to spot (if any) difference in the reporting for the duration of the campaign. If the polls fluctuate wildly over the period (say in favour of the ALP) would News Ltd become more shrill than they already are? Another interesting exercise will be to note the contents of the letters pages as well. Finally it would be interesting to run the ruler over the circulation figures as well (and online stats). As Paddy says it will be a lively campaign.