Australians go to the polls in August.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a date for the general election as predicted this weekend.
Australians will go to the polls on August 21st, a mere 35 days away, which has had all the major parties scrambling to their election campaign organisers.
Ms Gillard visited the Governor-General this morning to discuss the plans before announcing the date during a press conference at Parliament House.
Ms Gillard has only been Prime Minister of Australia for three weeks but already her popularity has overtaken that of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Her fans say that her tough talking on population, immigration and the economy have been her strengths.
Ms Gillard earlier softened her approach to immigration by conceding that Australia did still need skilled immigration in order to keep the economy strong and encourage business growth. However she has been in talks with the government of East Timor about plans for a detention centre to hold the many illegal immigrants that try to enter Australia by boat.
Mr Abbott meanwhile has promised to stop illegal immigration – by boat at least. He also takes a tough stance on immigration policy, pledges to stop the new taxes and would place industrial relations at the top of the priority list.
Ms Gillard meanwhile is keen to move away from the Labour government under Kevin Rudd, saying: “We would go in to our second term with some lessons learnt.”
She also promised that there would be no ‘big Australia’ – Rudd’s controversial policy – but instead a sustainable Australia.
At the moment polls suggest that Labour are in the lead, with bookies making them the favourite to win so far.
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