Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday gambled his political fate on a budget that he hopes will shore up his dwindling appeal with voters without blowing out the nation’s budget deficit.
With an early election confirmed for July 2, Turnbull hopes to silence increasingly loud accusations of dithering after his government suggested several new revenue-raising measures, only to rule them out later.
A tobacco tax increase, closing tax loopholes for wealthy pensioners and limiting corporate tax havens are among the fundraising measures the conservative leader has left open to possibility, local media reported.
Under Australian electoral rules, Turnbull was free to call a vote anytime until January 2017, but he has been anxious to revamp a Senate dominated by unaligned minor parties and the opposition Labor Party.
After the Senate voted down a controversial labor reform bill on Monday, he used a rare constitutional mechanism, only allowed in Australia after the upper house rejects a bill twice, to dissolve both houses of parliament and put them to a vote.
In the meantime, he will try to deliver a budget that can make good on promises to guide the nation through a once-in-a-generation commodities downturn and into a new phase of tech-savvy entrepreneurship.
He expects to deliver all that without growing a national deficit already expected to hit A$37.4 billion (US$29.1 billion) this fiscal year and last another five years.
“This is his chance to say: ‘I do have policies and we do have a plan,’” TD Securities chief Asia-Pacific macro strategist Annette Beacher said. “He’s been losing ground in the polls because everyone thinks he doesn’t have a plan, so this is big for Turnbull.”
A campaign effectively lasting 74 days is double Australia’s conventional five-week window and adds to a sense of instability that has been battering the nation’s government for half a decade.
Before Australia’s last general election in 2013, former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard announced a September poll date in January of that year, 228 days in advance and lasting a quarter of her three-year term.
If Turnbull loses on July 2, Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten would be the nation’s sixth leader since 2010.
Nevertheless, business groups said the gambit might stabilize sentiment.
“The idea of minor parties holding government to ransom does not create the best climate in which business can operate,” Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry spokeswoman Patricia Forsythe said, referring to the Senate deadlock.
Council of Small Business Australia chief executive Peter Strong said that, while his members face a longer election campaign, “we’ve got a budget. The community gets to see what they’re doing... and then we see the opposition’s response.”
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