Australia's conservatives trail as poll campaign starts

CANBERRA－Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government could lose the federal election to be held on May 21, according to polls on Monday, even as they showed him consolidating his position as the country's preferred leader on the first day of campaigning.

According to the latest edition of Newspoll, which was published by The Australian on Monday, the government now trails the opposition Labor Party 47-53 on a two-party preferred basis.

It marks the second consecutive poll the coalition has made up ground on Labor after trailing 44-56 in late January.

Despite making gains in Sunday's poll, the coalition still has to make up significant ground over the course of the campaign to win a fourth consecutive term in government.

Applied on a uniform basis nationally, a 53-47 two-party margin would result in Labor winning 79 out of 151 seats in the lower house of Parliament where the government is formed.

However, the poll also showed Morrison gaining a point to 44 percent as the preferred prime minister, while opposition leader Anthony Albanese fell 3 points to 39 percent, the largest lead the prime minister has held over his rival since February.

The economy is a key issue for many of the country's 17 million voters.

Morrison and Albanese on Monday hit the first official day of the campaign with multimillion-dollar funding announcements.

The prime minister visited the marginal New South Wales Labor seat of Gilmore where he announced A$40 million ($29.8 million) for local road upgrades.

On Monday morning he accused Albanese of spending "the last three years fighting me while I've been fighting the pandemic and standing up for Australia".

Asked by a reporter to give the national jobless rate, Albanese stumbled, replying: "The national unemployment rate at the moment is, I think it is 5 point … 4, sorry, I am not sure what it is."

Australia's unemployment rate is at a 13-year low of 4 percent, a level that Morrison has been touting as he warns voters not to trust Labor with the economy.

Albanese also skirted questions on the key interest that banks charge each other for overnight loans. Known as the bank rate, or the cash rate, it stands at 0.1 percent.

"Earlier today I made a mistake. I'm human," Albanese said shortly afterward.

"But when I make a mistake I will fess up to it and I will set about correcting that mistake. I won't blame someone else. I will accept responsibility. That's what leaders do."

Albanese, who has led Labor since the party's loss in the 2019 election, began the first day of the campaign in the Tasmanian seat of Bass where he promised funding to provide better care for children with hearing loss.

'Uphill battle'

He said that the party faces an "uphill battle" to win the election, noting that the Labor has won power from opposition only three times since World War II and dismissed Morrison's assertions that he is an unknown quantity.

Morrison has been touting his government's handling of the economy after the emergence of the coronavirus and a faster rebound helped by the lifting of most COVID-19 restrictions despite the threat from the Omicron variant.

Recovery has also been boosted by surging prices for natural resource commodities, of which Australia is a major exporter.

Multiple surveys show the cost of living, with gasoline prices soaring since Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, is a key concern ahead of the election.

Xinhua - Agencies