We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER Kevin Rudd has named September 7 as election day, hoping to complete a stunning political comeback with victory for his Labor Party three years after it ousted him.
Kicking off an election campaign set to focus on the economy and a decision to send asylum-seekers to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, Rudd met Governor General Quentin Bryce in Canberra to pave the way for the polls.
“It’s on. A few moments ago I saw the governor-general and asked that she dissolve this parliament and call the federal election for September 7,” Rudd, 55, said in an email to Labor supporters.
Julia Gillard
The former diplomat became prime minister for a second time in late June when Labor members of parliament voted to remove the nation’s first woman leader, Julia Gillard, in hopes of saving the party from catastrophic electoral defeat.
Since then, he has introduced changes to asylum-seeker policy to refuse those arriving on unauthorised boats residency in Australia. Rudd has also made plans to scrap an unpopular carbon tax in favour of an emissions trading scheme.
He pushed Labor’s economic credentials as he made his pitch to voters, saying the government had kept the economy out of recession during the global financial crisis but the mining-driven economy was now facing change.
“This election will be about who the Australian people trust to best lead them through the difficult new economic challenges which now lie ahead,” Rudd told a press conference in Canberra.
New challenges brought about by the end of the China resources boom. The boom of course has fuelled so much of this nation’s wealth. That boom is over. This election will also be about who the Australian people trust to steer our economy through the great economic transition that therefore lies ahead.
Rudd’s first term in office, which began with his landslide victory over conservative leader John Howard in 2007 polls, ended suddenly in mid-2010 when his Labor colleagues turned on him and voted in Gillard.
Gillard went to the polls shortly afterwards but that vote ended in a hung parliament, and she was forced to form a minority government with the help of several independents.
Voting
Rudd had kept the nation guessing on when the 2013 election – at which voting is compulsory in Australia – would be held.
He said he knew he was the underdog going up against conservative leader Tony Abbott, a former minister in Howard’s government, in the election but the feeling in the community was that a poll should be held now.
Opposition Liberal Party leader Abbott welcomed the election date. “At last the choice is yours, it’s not the choice of the (Labor) caucus, it’s not the choice of the faceless men, it’s your choice,” he told Australians, adding that if elected his government would build a stronger economy and get the budget under control.
There’s almost nothing wrong with our country that wouldn’t be improved by a change of government.
In announcing the election date in Canberra, Rudd admitted that Australians had seen him “at my highest highs and some of my lowest lows”, a reference to his crushing disappointment at the 2010 party room coup against him.
“Moments that I will never forgot, because whether they were good or bad, they certainly made me a much stronger person,” he said. “I think as a result, you, the Australian people, know me pretty well, warts and all.”
But the National Party, which would form a coalition with Abbott’s Liberals if they win, dismissed the idea that Rudd had changed.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Any chance he can sort out removing the monarchy of a country 15000 miles away as their head of state? Then change their flag to something without a butchers apron in the corner of it
And yet polls consistently show that a majority of Australians are quite happy with the Queen as Head of State and do not want to change their flag. Should those opinions be ignored just to make you (a non-Australian) happy?
The vote to become a republic in 1999 was actually very close: No 55% Yes 45%
Howard was a staunch Monarchist and only gave the people the choice of becoming a republic if the President was elected by Parliament and not the people…The vote on offer was as follows-
“To alter the Constitution to establish the Commonwealth of Australia as a republic with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a President appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth Parliament.”
Would you vote for this arrangement? It was a bit of political gamesmanship by Howard and it worked, barely.
At the time the vast majority of Australians would have voted to become a republic if they were the electors of their President. This remains the case.
Exactly. I was one of those republicans who voted no in that refrrendum because I found the republican model unacceptable. The death of the current queen will be the next catalyst to reignite the republican debate.
@Ronan Butler – Actually the model the put to the 1999 referendum was at the time the preferred option of the Australian Republican Movement, one of the largest bodies lobbying to change the constitutional arrangement.
I am a dual irish/australian citizen & my attitude is if its not broken dont fix it.
Chris that’s just an ignorant and frankly insulting comment.
I have full admiration for the Australians and how they act decisively to protect the integrity of their borders and their citizenship.
None of the European style namby-pambying to the liberals.
Go, Rudd, go!
Reading reports here this morning looks like Labour this side of the world are also talking about an election.
good day mate put a shrimp on the barbe :)
have your say