About 11.5 million Australians will go to the polls tomorrow to elect 148 members of the House of Representatives and 40 members of the Senate.
At present Labor has 79 seats in the House of Representatives and needs to retain 75 of them to keep government. A uniform swing of just half a per cent would give the Coalition Government. Opinion polls have been giving the Coalition a lead of between four and eight per cent throughout the campaign which began with the election announcement five weeks ago.
Today, The Canberra Times brings you a comprehensive guide to the election. Today’s guide includes a comparison of policies, a summary of marginal and interesting seats to watch a guide to the count in the Senate and a guide to coverage by the electronic media tomorrow night.
On Sunday, The Canberra Times will carry the last count of all House of Representative seats and the Senate, expert analysis, details of where doubtful seats are likely to go, reports of victory and defeat speeches and detail of how the ACT voted.
The Labor Party goes into the election having won the past five and after being in power for 13 years. The Coalition lost the unlosable election in 1993 by proposing a goods and services tax and cuts to public spending. This time, the GST has been ruled out.
Both sides have offered more help for families, particularly in the form of extra health cover. One of the few significant differences is industrial relations, where the Coalition proposes to reduce the role of unions by allowing more individual contracts. Besides this, it has been called the Tweedledeedee and Tweedledeedum election.
Independents appear stronger this election than for a long time. Three disendorsed Liberals and a disendorsed Labor candidate in Western Australia have been polling quite well. Retiring independent Ted Mack may be replaced by another, independent Phil Cleary is standing again, and the No Aircraft Noise Party has gained some support in Sydney.
In the Senate, the main fight is between the Democrats and the Greens. Five of the seven Democrat senators are up for re-election. The Greens are hoping to increase their representation to four by taking a Democrat seat in Tasmania and one from a major party in Victoria.
Opinion polls suggest that the Government is having the hardest time in NSW and Queensland.
Tomorrow night, daylight saving will determine the flow of results. Results will come in first from NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, followed by South Australia half an hour later; Queensland an hour after and Western Australia three hours behind.