Day 2

HOUSING
Kevin Rudd was in the western Sydney seat of Werriwa (Mark Latham's old seat) to announce an aspect of Labor's housing affordability policy. Rudd said he would release up to $6 billion worth of Commonwealth land for housing development to ease the affordability crisis. In doing so, a Labor Administration would require every government department to audit all its land and "show cause" why any surplus land should not be released for housing.

TAX
The Government continued to promote their $34 billion cut cut package and pressure Labor to release it's tax policy with the Prime Minister and Peter Costello campaign in the marginal NSW seat of Eden-Monaro.

DEBATING THE DEBATE(S)
The usual debate over the Leaders' debates began in earnst with the Prime Minister wanting one debate of 90 minutes this Sunday and Labor Leader Rudd wanting three debates later in the campaign. Rudd has so far refused to accept the one debate only rule and has not indicated if he will attend. The PM has said he will turn up on Sunday regardless of Rudd's decision. Labor also announced it would established an Independent Debate Commission for future elections.

ADVERTISING
Labor took the unusual step of using the Liberal Party's first negative TV commercial in its own commercial to warn that there will be more negative campaign from the Liberal Party. Labor's latest advertisement is below.

First Campaign Advertisements

Both major parties hit the airwaves immediately on Sunday with television commercials.

The Liberal Party TV ad focused on the economy and revived the "L-Plate" they used effectively against Mark Latham in the 2004 Federal election.

See it here.



Labor's campaign ad focuses on Rudd's "positive" plans for the future highlighting education, health, the environment and the workplace.

Watch it below.

Day 1

The Coalition began their re-election bid with a bang announcing plans for $34 billion worth of tax cuts over three years. Treasurer Costello's full media statement can be found here.

Labor started its campaign with Leader Kevin Rudd visiting the marginal Coalition seat of Blair in Queensland, focusing on Workplace Relations and challenging the Government to rule out any further chances if re-elected.

Both Rudd and Howard appeared on the ABC's 7.30 Report to outline their camping priorities.

Howard's first campaign stumble occurred on Nine's A Current Affair when he was asked about the Reserve Bank's official interest rate. Watch it below.

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.