Leaders are desperately trying to woo Australians with political offerings a day before early voting opens, with millions of people set to cast their ballots early.
The Australian Electoral Commission is preparing to deliver what it calls Australia’s largest peacetime logistical event with more than 18 million people registered to vote and 60 million ballot papers being printed.
The Easter long weekend traditionally represents a campaign lull, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese using Sunday to chat rugby league.
However his Good Friday was anything but as his beloved Rabbitohs were demolished by the Bulldogs 32-0.
“A sore point, a bit rough for Easter to see the Bunnies go down like that,” he told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
Over the long weekend, Labor promised to legislate penalty rate protections in a move branded a stunt by the coalition.
The opposition maintains the Fair Work Commission, which sets the minimum wages and conditions, should remain independent.
“You’ve got the Labor Party coming out saying … somehow the coalition’s got penalty rates in their sights, that is not correct,” Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said.
But the opposition is under pressure to reveal its full policy costings while major announcements, such as defence spending, remain up its sleeve as Australians begin voting.
The latest Newspoll, published in the Australian, shows a lift in Labor’s primary vote to 34 per cent, its highest mark in a year, with the coalition on 35 per cent.
On a two-party preferred basis, Labor is at 52 per cent, ahead of the coalition’s 48 per cent, raising the possibility of a hung parliament, given support for the Greens and independents.
Approval ratings have fallen for both men, though Mr Albanese is well ahead as preferred prime minister – 52 per cent to Mr Dutton’s 36 per cent.
Support for each leader varies according to issue, with Mr Dutton favoured on defence and the economy, but Mr Albanese preferred on the electorate’s dominant concern, the cost of living, along with housing and health.
The survey’s 1263 respondents also judged the Labor leader to be better able to handle the fall-out of the Trump presidency in the US.
Meanwhile, a Resolve Strategic poll published in Nine newspapers has shown voters are not entirely convinced by Labor’s cost of living promises with 47 per cent saying it is a stumbling block to voting the PM back into power.
But that has not translated into an automatic boost for Peter Dutton with 45 per cent of those polled citing his personality as the top reason they would not elect him to the top political job.
That represents a resounding 10 per cent rise from two months earlier in response to the same question, when 35 per cent were critical of his temperament.
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