Ben Packham
August 04, 2013
The Australian
AUSTRALIANS will go to the polls on September 7, Kevin Rudd has confirmed in an email to supporters.
The Prime Minister informed supporters of the date via email, after visiting Governor-General Quentin Bryce this afternoon.
”A few moments ago I saw the Governor-General and asked that she dissolve this parliament and call the Federal Election for September 7,” Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd will hold a press conference a 4pm to officially announce the election date and frame his pitch to voters.
He told supporters Australians now faced a stark choice – between his ”positive vision” and Tony Abbott’s”negativityâ€.
”Right now the only thing standing between Australia and an Abbott-led government is you, me, and as many Australians as we can rally to fight for the kind of nation we all want to live in” Mr Rudd said.
KEVIN Rudd has dumped key demands of Julia Gillard’s education and disability policy to get deals with Victoria and WA.
ANNOUNCING the $12.2 billion schools deal with the Victoria, Bill Shorten flagged the agreement as a key election weapon.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
He said he’d be talking to voters across the country about Labor policies like its better schools plan and NBN.
”Tony Abbott has a different approach. He’ll bang on with the same negativity that we’re all sick of” Mr Rudd said.
”He’s only got three word slogans because he doesn’t have the ticker to debate his real agenda.
”He said Labor had “one hell of a fight on our hand”, and urged supporters to “chip in $5 to get us off to a strong start”.
He said Mr Abbott ”and a few millionaire” would out-spend Labor during the campaign.
But he said Labor could win the election”if we work together”.
The election announcement comes about seven weeks after Mr Rudd was reinstalled as Prime Minister in a ballot against Julia Gillard.
Labor goes into the race as underdogs. The last Newspoll, on July 23, had Labor trailing the Coalition 48 per cent to 52 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Labor currently holds 71 seats to the Coalition’s 75, meaning Tony Abbott only needs to secure a net one seat gain to govern in his own right.
Labor, having governed with the support of the Greens and independents, needs to win a net five seats to be returned.
Bookmakers Sportingbet Australia have Coalition as the $1.28 favourite to win the election. The bookie is offering $3.65 for a Labor win.
Subscribe to our free mailing list and always be the first to receive the latest news and updates.