Leaders' State Their Case

Prime Minister Howard formally announced his bid for a fifth term by declaring:

This election is about Australia’s future. It’s about the leadership Australia needs right now to stay strong, prosperous and secure.

Australia has come a long way in the last decade based on the hard work of all Australians and the tough decisions of the Coalition. Now we must make Australia even stronger.

This will not happen automatically. It will not happen through new leadership or old leadership. It requires the right leadership.

Full details of his announcement can be found here.

Labor Kevin Rudd countered making his claim for election by saying:

This election is about Australia’s future and it’s an election about a choice about who offers new leadership for Australia’s future.

New leadership to help working families, new leadership with fresh ideas to deal with Australia’s future challenges.

And what I’m offering the Australian is new leadership, both to help working families under financial pressure and new leadership for a plan for our country’s future.

His full statement can be found here.

Federal Voting Trends

Prime Minister Howard has called the the 2007 election with his Government still trailing badly in the polls. The graph below tracks Newspoll from the 2004 Federal election and clearly shows the significant growth in support for Kevin Rudd and Labor since his elevation to the leadership in December 2006.

The latest poll result has the ALP with 56% of the two-party preferred vote and the Coalition on 44%.


Additionally, the Coalition's primary vote has been stuck at on or below 40% for several months as the graph of the primary vote polling shows below:


On the matter of preferred Prime Minister, Howard trails badly behind Rudd with the latest results showing Rudd is preferred by 48% compared to Howard on 39%. The graph below similarly plots these Newspoll results since Rudd assumed the leadership in late 2006.

Election Called

Prime Minister Howard visited the Governor-General this morning who approved a Federal election for November 24th.

The election will be for the full House of Representatives and half the Senate.

Key dates for the conduct of the election are as follows:

Announcement of election:	Sunday 14 October 2007
Issue of writ:	Wednesday 17 October 2007
Deadline for new enrolment:	8pm, Wednesday 17 October 2007
Close of rolls for updating address:	8pm, Tuesday 23 October 2007
Close of bulk nominations:	12noon, Tuesday 30 October 2007
Close of nominations:	12noon, Thursday 1 November 2007
Declaration of nominations:	12noon, Friday 2 November 2007
Election day:	8am to 6pm, Saturday 24 November 2007