Australian Federal Election Set For July 2
MEP: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that the country will hold a federal election on July 2.
Turnbull has called the election several months early after the country’s upper house repeatedly blocked legislation.
The prime minister on Sunday asked the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, to dissolve both the lower and upper houses of parliament, including senators, will need to run for re-election.
“The governor-general has accepted my advice to dissolve both houses of parliament effective tomorrow morning, and call an election for both houses, a double dissolution, on 2 July,” Turnbull said during a news conference Sunday.
It is the first early election since 1987 in which all 76 Senate seats as well as the 150 seats of the House of Representatives will be contested.
The opposition Labor Party needs to gain 21 seats in the lower house to win power, although changes to electoral boundaries mean it nominally holds three of those seats already.
Faced with daunting poll numbers, the Prime Minister is outlining his ruling coalition’s plan for jobs and growth.
“At this election, Australians will have a very clear choice — to keep the course, maintain the commitment to our national economic plan for growth and jobs, or go back to Labor, with its high-taxing, higher spending, debt and deficit agenda,” he said.
Turnbull, a former banker and self-made millionaire, takes on Labor rival Bill Shorten, once the boss of one of Australia’s most powerful unions.
