Turnbull sets Aussie election date
How the polls stand.
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Hawke’s Bay
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has gone to the Governor General to set an election for July 2.
The PM had already indicated he would call a double-dissolution election (covering the lower and upper houses of Australia's federal Parliament) over stalled legislation.
However, the eight-week time frame — which will be one of the longest in history — has surprised some pundits.
Mr Turnbull's centre-right coalition government has just delivered its 2016 budget, with measures including tax cuts for small business and a so-called Google Tax clampdown on profit-shifting by multinationals (see Nevil Gibson's quick summary here). However, with the snap election looming, it now stands more as manifesto than budget.
Neck-and-neck
Mr Turnbull's honeymoon quickly faded after he rolled his predecessor Tony Abbott in September last year.
A poll-of-polls analysis published today has Labor on 52% and the Coalition on 48%.
The ongoing commodities downturn has squeezed the Australian economy. There has also been a perception of lack of direction, some pundits say, with apparent tension between Mr Turnbull and his Treasurer Scott Morrison, and fractious relations with independent MPs.
A recent dinner-meeting between Mr Turnbull, independent senators Glenn Lazarus and Jacqui Lambie and a number of cross-bench MPs ended badly, with Mr Lazarus leaving early in a huff.
The former rugby league player told media there was a failure to find common ground on policy. On social media, he also cited "stick insect portions," which necessitated a top-up at McDonalds on the way home.
The political situation has been further destabilised by the implosion of mining billionaire Clive Palmer's Palmer United Party (PUP), from which Lazarus and Lambie are estranged. Mr Palmer has recently been mired in scandal surrounding the collapse of his nickel mining business in Queensland.
A surreal interview on a $A50 billion submarine plan has not helped Mr Turnbull's cause, either.
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Turnbull sets Aussie election date
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