Anthony Albanese has called the election and Medicare will be front and centre in the campaign. Photo: Screenshot.
Australians will go to the polls on the 3rd of May to decide the next federal government, with Anthony Albanese asking the nation for a second term in office.
The Prime Minister visited Governor-General Sam Mostyn early Friday morning (28 March), asking for Parliament to be dissolved and writs issued for a five-week election.
At 8 am, Mr Albanese appeared in his courtyard in Parliament House to announce that the campaign had begun and to declare the election to be one of the most important for the nation in recent history.
“Because of the strength and resilience that our people have shown, Australia is turning the corner,” he said.
“Now, on 3 May, you choose the way forward. Your vote has never been more important.
“And your choice has never been more clear. This election is a choice between Labor’s plan to keep building or Peter Dutton’s promise to cut.
“That is the choice.”
The PM said he was “born ready” to fight the election and for what he says is best for the country.
He said now was not the time for “cutting and wrecking” and said the choice was between his government’s plan to keep building and Peter Dutton’s “promise to cut”.
“What drives me each and every day is the determination to build a future worthy of the people of Australia,” Mr Albanese said.
“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.
“This is a time for building on our nation’s strengths, building our security and prosperity for ourselves, building an Australia where no one is held back and no one is left behind.
“At this election, I’m asking for the support of the Australian people to keep building on the hard work that we have done and the strong foundations that we have laid.
“I’m asking you to vote Labor so we can keep building Australia’s future together.”
Suggesting the Opposition Leader might want to take Australia down a path similar to what is happening in the United States, the Prime Minister said Australia didn’t need to adopt the policies of another nation.
“My fellow Australians, we live in the greatest country on Earth. And we do not need to copy from any other nation to make Australia even better and stronger,” he said.
“We only need to trust in our values and back our people.”
When asked about that point later, Mr Albanese referenced Mr Dutton’s plans to sack 41,000 public servants if elected.
“People will make their own judgements, of course, but people will have a look at the mass sackings of public servants and wonder how is it – we’ve just been through a flood in Queensland, where in Hervey Bay, where I was, 15 public servants were working out of a caravan to make sure that those Australians got the money they were entitled to and deserved,” he said.
“They’re gone under Peter Dutton.”
However, it is the cost of living that the PM says this election is about, reminding Australians of his recently announced election promises while waving a Medicare card at times.
These initiatives include a 20 per cent cut to student debt; legislated top-up tax cuts; an $8.5 billion for Medicare to boost the GP bulk billing incentive; capping the cost of a PBS-listed script to $25; more Urgent Care Clinics; and the extension of the energy bill rebate.
“The biggest risk to all of this is not what’s happening elsewhere in the world,” he said.
“The biggest risk to Australia’s future is going back to the failures of the past, the tax increases, and cuts to services that Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party want to lock in.”
It will be a hard-fought campaign, with all recent polling indicating the result will be a hung parliament.
Mr Albanese said he was determined to win and govern a second term in majority government.
A ceremony at Parliament House has prorogued the Parliament, and the government is now officially in caretaker mode.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Riotact.
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