Political hopefuls are running out of time to unveil and sell their major policies as Australians begin to cast their votes in the federal election.
The first ballots will be cast on Tuesday as early voting begins ahead of the May 3 poll, with millions expected to skip the lines on election day.
It’s sparked warnings about parties not having enough time to sell their messages if they keep policies up their sleeves for too long.
The coalition still has at least one major announcement to come on its defence spending allocation, while it is yet to specify what public service jobs are on the line as it aims to reduce the commonwealth payroll by 40,000 people.
Labor has seized on the coalition not balancing its spending with enough cost-saving measures to launch attacks about “secret cuts” as it campaigns heavily on Medicare and other health initiatives.
“When Peter Dutton cuts, Australians will pay,” has been the government’s tagline, which was used again on Monday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a visit to an urgent care clinic in the marginal NSW south coast seat of Gilmore.
Mr Albanese called it “extraordinary arrogance” for the opposition leader not to tell Australians where all the flagged cuts will come from until after the election.
Mr Dutton has said he needs the resources of government to determine areas of waste to be targeted.
Both major parties have promised to release the full costing of their policies before May 3.
Coalition MPs have defended delaying policy announcements until late in the campaign, saying they will unveil them when Australians are paying the most attention.
But that approach could come back to bite the party if 2022’s early voter turnout of more than 5.5 million people is anything to go by.
Analysts expect many voters going away for the upcoming Anzac Day long weekend and school holidays will take advantage of pre-polling, meaning parties may have to change tack.
“If they’ve got something that they want to have a maximum impact, they can’t reveal it at the last minute the way they used to,” University of Tasmania public policy associate professor Kate Crowley told AAP.
Pre-polling is becoming more popular as voters turn away from major parties, which means Labor and the coalition need to strategise about how election sweeteners are offered during a campaign, she said.
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