Australian PM Calls Election for May 3 as Polls Signal Tight Race

Labor neck and neck with opposition Coalition; cost-of-living issues set to dominate

- Jonathan Pearlman

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an election for May 3, hoping to win voters over with his pledge of steady leadership in the face of global uncertainty and promises to tackle the high cost of living.

Opinion polls put him neck and neck with opposition leader Peter Dutton, a hardliner on security and migration.

Mr Albanese, 62, who led Labor back to power at the last election in 2022, painted Mr Dutton, who leads the Liberal-National Coalition, as a "risk" who would cut healthcare, social services and public service jobs at a time when households are struggling.

"The world today is an uncertain place, but I am absolutely certain of this: Now is not the time for cutting and wrecking, for aiming low, punching down or looking back," he told reporters on March 28 after announcing the election date.

Mr Dutton, 54, a former police officer who became an MP in 2001 and has served as minister for defence, home affairs and immigration, has accused Labor of "wasteful spending" that has worsened cost-of-living pressures and added to housing unaffordability.

A hardliner on border security who has sometimes been compared to US President Donald Trump - a comparison he has dismissed - Mr Dutton said Mr Albanese lacked the fortitude to deal with "our times, which are very uncertain".

"Unfortunately, Mr Albanese is too weak, and Labor is too incompetent, to fix the problems that they've created and that are facing our country today," he told reporters.

The election is expected to focus on cost-of-living concerns following a spike in inflation and interest rates due to the Covid-19 pandemic, global supply chain problems and the war in Ukraine.

But inflation has now dropped from a high of 7.8 per cent in December 2022 to the current rate of 2.4 per cent, and interest rates were cut in February after a run of rises that began in May 2022.