The Australian Prime Minister, the Hon. Ms Julia Gillard, MP, has made an unprecedented move to call an election seven months out from polling day, due on Saturday 14 September.
Political experts at Charles Sturt University will be on hand for commentary leading up to the election, with special reference to issues affecting rural and regional Australia as well as the nation’s international engagements. These include:
Dr Dominic O’Sullivan, with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences based at CSU in Bathurst, believes the Prime Minister has taken a big political risk in naming the election date six and a half months earlier than constitutionally necessary. “Ms Gillard has given away one of the strategic advantages of incumbency - the right to set an election date and plan for it, without one's opponents having the same opportunity to plan and prepare. In giving the Coalition the chance to book campaign venues, make decisions about who will campaign where, when and where to advertise, and the timing of policy announcements the Prime Minister gives the Coalition a political opportunity that, constitutionally, it need not enjoy. However, the Coalition now has to start campaigning on policies of real substance which are exposed to scrutiny, perhaps before it is ready. The Coalition is denied the excuse of time if it cannot get its policies costed in time for the election. The Prime Minister is counting on exposing deficient Coalition policies. If she can do this, naming the date early will prove an inspired move, if she can not, it will go down in history as one of her many lapses in political judgement.”
Dr Troy Whitford, with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences based at CSU in Wagga Wagga, who believes there are a number of interpretations that can be considered in Ms Gillard’s move to call the election. “It can be viewed as a move to cement her position as Labor Party leader going into the election, as it is unlikely there would be a leadership challenge now Labor is moving into campaign mode. It also cements Tony Abbott's position as leader of the Coalition parties. Second, an extended campaigning period will test the ability of the parties to time election announcement and not ‘peak’ too early in the polls, while it will be a challenge for the minor parties and independents to fund an extended campaign. If the major parties advertise early it is unlikely the minor parties and independents will have the spending power to keep up. Finally, we will probably enter a ‘phoney’ campaign period, where we will have no real campaigning until June or July.
Dr Oliver Villar, with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences based at CSU in Bathurst, who said the Prime Minister assumed office in 2010 in controversial circumstances, the expectation by traditional Labor supporters that she would represent at least some of her working class roots. “But Labor’s Fair Work Bill, and the Howard government's deeply unpopular WorkChoices which it replaced, both violate United Nations (UN) International Labour Organization standards. The UN has also denounced Australian building and construction laws for undermining workers' rights to participate in collective action through union representation. Labor and the Coalition represent a continuing drive towards ‘neoliberal’ privatisation in health and education, while Ms Gillard wants to introduce US-style performance-based testing which could threaten primary and secondary school teachers and close ‘underperforming’ public schools. Mr Abbott’s statement ‘it’s more tax or less’ and Ms Gillard’s ‘plan for certainty and security’ reflect American presidential-style campaigning in defence of corporate interests, with populist rhetoric thrown in!”
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