The federal election campaign is underway after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited the Governor-General and called a poll for September 7.
Five weeks after he seized the Labor leadership back from Julia Gillard, Mr Rudd announced the date via an email to supporters, beginning with the phrase: “It’s on”.
With Ms Gillard as prime minister, the polls suggested an electoral wipe-out for Labor. But the polls have narrowed dramatically since Mr Rudd’s ascension and a much closer contest is now in prospect.
Follow the ABC rolling coverage for the latest updates and analysis, and read the ABC’s comprehensive wrap: HERE
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• Christine Milne: Labor’s Sunday night TV ad onslaught shows fixed terms are needed
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• Rupert v Rudd … Paul Sheehan, SMH: Murdoch’s vicious attacks on Rudd: it’s business The arrival of Col Allan in Australia is making a lot of people uneasy. Allan is a man widely known inside News Corporation as Col Pot, a play on the name of a Cambodian genocidal dictator. He is News Corp’s most feared flamethrower in a company of flamethrowers and he has been sent to Australia by Rupert Murdoch himself. The purpose of his mission has become clear in recent days. One person who should rightly be disconcerted by Allan’s sudden secondment to Australia is the head of News Corporation Australia, Kim Williams. Several other executives should also be leery, but they are not Allan’s primary target. His primary target is Kevin Rudd. Why Murdoch wants Rudd to lose the coming federal election is not merely political, it is commercial. News Corp hates the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN). The company has formed a view that it poses a threat to the business model of by far its most important asset in Australia, the Foxtel cable TV monopoly it jointly owns with Telstra. Murdoch has declared war on Rudd by dispatching his most trusted field general, Allan … • No better typified than by today’s Telegraph headline screaming: ‘Kick This Mob Out’
• Dennis Shanahan, The Australian: Underdog PM, ALP fade with the voters
KEVIN Rudd’s personal support among voters has slumped back to levels last seen before he was removed as prime minister in 2010 as he opened the 2013 election campaign by declaring himself the “underdog”.
The latest Newspoll survey reveals that Labor starts the campaign with its support virtually unchanged in the past fortnight at 37 per cent to the Coalition’s 44 per cent, down one percentage point.
On a two-party preferred basis, after the distribution of preferences based on the 2010 election, the Coalition has maintained its election-winning lead of 52 per cent to Labor’s 48 per cent, which is unchanged since mid-July.
The Greens’ support is down one point to 9 per cent compared to 11.8 per cent at the last election.
Although Mr Rudd remains the voters’ preferred prime minister and is more popular than the Opposition Leader, his personal support slumped into negative for the first time since he resumed the leadership in June and his support as preferred prime minister is at its lowest.
According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian on the weekend, voter satisfaction with Mr Rudd dropped four percentage points in the past two weeks from 42 per cent to 38 per cent and dissatisfaction jumped six points from 41 per cent to 47 per cent. Since the end of his first week as Prime Minister at the beginning of July, satisfaction with Mr Rudd has fallen five points and dissatisfaction has risen 11 points.
• Christine Milne: Abbott’s arrogance on minority government
• Tasmania’s social media election
• Lib’s Bernie Black … and the perils of social media A public relations expert is warning political candidates to be careful about how enthusiastically they embrace social media, after a Tasmanian hopeful abruptly withdrew an online advertisement. Sitting casually on a couch, with a pop music sountrack playing, the Liberal candidate for Franklin Bernadette Black made her pitch to young voters online. “Hey there rockstar! My name is Bernie Black and I’m thrilled you clicked through, you look like the kind of person who’s fun to be around, you’re a hard worker too,” she told viewers. “I mean, really? Why do I keep wanting to like my friend’s Instagram of Lolcats?” The clip is no longer on Ms Black’s website.
