Prime Minister Julia Gillard has asked Australians for their trust as they head to the polls on August 21.
Ms Gillard has called the election just three weeks after she took over the prime ministership.
In her first press conference of the campaign, Ms Gillard repeated the message she has been pushing since she became Prime Minister – that she wants to take Australia forward.
“Today I seek a mandate from the Australian people to move the Australian people forward,” she said.
“In this the forthcoming election campaign I’ll be asking the Australian people for their trust.
“This election I believe presents Australia with a very clear choice.
“This election is about the choice as to whether we move Australia forward or go back.”
With an election campaign set to last for five weeks, Ms Gillard pledged that Australians would not see a “spendathon”.
Ms Gillard said the Government would focus on measures to keep the economy strong, and deal with climate change and border protection.
“I believe our nation too can face the future with confidence. The best days of this nation are in front of it, not behind it.” she said.
It will be the first time for both Ms Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that they will lead their parties to an election.
Ms Gillard has already foreshadowed a “lean” campaign that could include some unpopular cutbacks.
Economic management, health, climate change and border protection are expected to be key areas on which the election will be fought.
Ms Gillard has already sought to defuse the asylum seeker issue while Mr Abbott has moved to stop Government attacks over Coalition industrial relations policy.
The Government’s plans to deal with climate change are yet to be announced.
Ms Gillard says she does not believe Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s promise that WorkChoices is dead and buried.
“We’ve heard all of that before,” she said.
“He’s trying to hold Australians back by making them afraid of the future.”
Ms Gillard has indicated that she thinks the election result will be close.
For the Coalition to win, Mr Abbott needs to win an extra 17 seats, which he could if the Coalition achieved a uniform swing of 2.3 per cent.
Speaking in Brisbane today Mr Abbott has already begun his campaign to paint the Government as a bungling and incompetent administration.
He has promised a Coalition government would better handle the economy.
“I can’t promise that an incoming Coalition government will be perfect but I can promise that it will respect the taxpayer’s dollar,” he said.
ABC election analyst Antony Green says the leaders will be spending a lot of time campaigning in outer-surburban seats of capital cities.
“The bulk of the key seats are in New South Wales and Queensland,” he said.
Tony Abbott says…
FEDERAL ELECTION 2010 STATEMENT
This election is about giving a great people a better government.
We are a great country but we have been let down by our government at least for the past three years.
Australia will be at its best when all of our people are empowered to be at their best. But the only way to change for the better is to change the government.
Only a Coalition government can end the spin and incompetence that has marked the Rudd Gillard Government and which has just got worse over the past three weeks since Labor’s faceless men executed the elected prime minister. Three weeks ago the government had lost its way but since then its just got worse.
Why should people trust Labor’s 2010 promises when you couldn’t trust its 2007 promises; why should people trust a new prime minister who said she’d fix the messes her own government had created – failed to do so – and now has rushed to the polls before she’s established her credentials to govern; why should people trust Julia Gillard when even Kevin Rudd couldn’t?
Why should people trust a government which can’t say who the finance minister, the defence minister or the foreign minister would be if it is re-elected; why should people trust a prime minister who can’t guarantee that she will serve a full term because she can’t guarantee that the factions will let her?
There is a better way. We’ll stand up for real action.
A Coalition government will respect the taxpayers’ dollar. We know that households and businesses have had to tighten their belts. We’ll make government tighten its belt too.
A government which is borrowing $100 million every single day is taking away $100 million that would otherwise be available to small business and that’s hurting every family’s budget.
We will respect people’s judgment too. The government trusts parents enough to help them buy school uniforms but not enough to let them decide the classrooms or halls or canteens that their schools need. We’ll give local communities a real say over the schools and hospitals that they so rely on.
We’ll respect the environment because we only have one planet to live on. But you don’t help the environment by damaging the economy. We’ll reduce emissions in ways that help our farmers and establish a standing Green Army, 15,000 strong, to care for our country.
There is a real risk in this election. It’s that a bad government will get the second chance that it doesn’t deserve and that Australia can’t afford.
The election isn’t about glib slogans. It’s about competent government that works for everyday Australians and their families and that’s what the Coalition stands ready to deliver.
The Prime Minister wants to move forward because the recent past is so littered with her own failures. If we stay with Labor we’ll be moving forward to more spending, more taxes, more debt, and more boats.
That’s why Labor needs to move out for our country to move on.
We’ll stand up for Australia. We’ll stand up for real action. We’ll end the waste, repay the debt, stop the new taxes and stop the boats.
17 July 2010
