Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched a campaign for an election still up to eight months away with a health debate against opponent Tony Abbott yesterday, with political analysts declaring Rudd the winner of the showdown.
The debate is a confidence boost to Rudd’s Australian Labor Party just days after the party suffered a drop of more than 7 percent in state elections in South Australia and Tasmania.
Political analysts unanimously awarded the contest to Rudd, saying Abbott suffered by not having a detailed health policy to promote, with one suggesting Rudd should now consider bringing forward the election to late August.
“This debate reinforces Labor Party polling that they are rock solid on health, and Rudd should now be looking at a double dissolution election on August 28,” Monash University analyst Nick Economou told reporters.
Rudd has put health reform at the center of his push for a second term, replacing his centerpiece carbon trade plan that has been twice rejected by parliament’s upper house Senate.
Rudd’s support in opinion polls has been slipping since Abbott was elected opposition leader in December. But the latest Reuters Poll Trend shows Rudd is still favored to win elections, due by the end of the year.
Earlier this month, Rudd announced a US$45 billion plan to take over funding for state-based public hospitals in order to improve taxpayer-funded health services. The plan is to be paid for by redirecting proceeds of the national goods and services tax.
Polls show strong support for the plan, and the prime minister wanted to promote his reforms to counter opposition jibes that his government is all talk and no action.
So far, Australia’s financial markets have shown little reaction to the opposition’s recent poll gains, as policy differences between the two sides are not deemed major enough to move markets.
Both Rudd and Abbott appeared relaxed and confident during the debate.
Abbott, a former health minister, used the debate to paint Rudd as a politician more concerned with perception than substance, and to criticize his bureaucratic style.
“Patients deserve more medical doctors, not more spin doctors,” he added.
But Rudd won support from television audience focus groups whenever he talked of training more doctors and nurses, and of the need to reform health to make spending more sustainable.
“Change needs to happen, it needs to happen now,” he said adding doctors, surgeons and nurses all backed his plans.
Rudd said every Australian was entitled to the best quality of healthcare, no matter where they lived.
“That’s our overall principle. It is the principle of a fair go,” he said.
The Nine television network’s audience focus group awarded the debate to Rudd 71 percent to 29 percent for Abbott, echoed by Adelaide’s the Advertiser newspaper political correspondent Mark Kenny.
“Verdict: Rudd the winner. Abbott probably won debate but was too punchy and negative,” Kenny said.
Regular elections of half the upper house Senate and all 150 lower house seats are due around the third anniversary of Rudd’s November 2007 win.
However, Rudd can call a double dissolution election, for the lower house and all 76 Senators, at any time due to Senate obstruction of his program.
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