AUSTRALIA:Australia's federal election will be held on November 24th in a poll prime minister John Howard says is about the "right leadership", writes Pádraig Collins, in Sydney.
Aiming for a fifth consecutive term, 68-year-old Mr Howard said yesterday: "Australia is enjoying a remarkable level of national prosperity at the present time. But I believe very passionately that this country's best years can lie ahead of us in the years immediately ahead.
"In order for that to happen this country does not need new leadership, it does not need old leadership, it needs the right leadership."
In contrast, opposition Labor party leader Kevin Rudd (50) gave his press conference before a board plastered with the phrase "new leadership". "What I am offering the Australian people is new leadership," he said.
"Our country has a future too full of promise to allow a government that's been in office for 11 years, a government that's lost touch, and a government that's gone stale, just to continue on."
Labor needs a swing of 4.8 per cent to gain the 16 seats it needs to defeat the Liberal-National coalition.
However, despite continued economic expansion pushing the unemployment rate to a 33-year-low of 4.2 per cent, Labor has had a strong lead in all of the 70 polls since Mr Rudd took over as party leader last December.
The latest poll, published in Sydney and Melbourne newspapers yesterday, gave Labor an 18 point lead after preferences. Mr Rudd is preferred prime minister by 52 to 42 over Mr Howard.
If these figures carried through to polling day, the coalition would lose dozens of seats, including Mr Howard's.
The coalition has accused Mr Rudd of "me too" politics in recent weeks, saying he has no policies of his own. Mr Howard played up this angle in announcing the election. "Love me or loathe me, the Australian people know where I stand on all the major issues of importance to their future.
"People must decide in the weeks ahead who is better able to, not only preserve the prosperity we now have, but also to build it further and to make sure that it is fairly shared throughout the Australian community."
Mr Rudd outlined his party's platform by saying: "The greatest risk for Australia's future is for the coalition to return and nothing changes. Nothing changes on climate change; nothing changes on water . . . nothing changes when it comes to our workplaces except of course WorkChoices would be made even worse."
WorkChoices - the industrial relations system introduced by the coalition last year - is set to be a primary focus, and main point of difference, of the election campaign. Many studies have found that WorkChoices has reduced wages, increased working hours and been detrimental to the work/life balance.
A recent article in the Spectator magazine referred to the 500-page WorkChoices legislation as "the longest suicide note in history". Australia will decide in six weeks' time if that is the case, but, as the Labor party knows all too well, Mr Howard has pulled a rabbit out of the hat at the last minute before.