Early election speculation reaches fever pitch as Albanians announce candidates for Tasmania and WA clash is averted

Anthony Albanese is moving aggressively to get Labor ready for a federal election campaign that starts as early as January, unveiling two high-profile candidates for Tasmania’s seats.

The premier also dismissed the prospects of a clash with Western Australian Prime Minister Roger Cook’s re-election bid.

During a whirlwind tour of Tasmania on Tuesday, Albanese announced Senator Anne Urquhart would resign from the federal upper house to contest the seat of Braddon, which is held by the Liberals by an 8 per cent margin.

At a separate media conference two hours later he confirmed that former Labor leader Rebecca White would contest Lyon. Labor holds the seat, won in 2022 by retiring MP Brian Mitchell, by a sharp margin of 0.3 percent.

The flurry of pre-campaign announcements is fueling speculation that the government is becoming increasingly reluctant to return to parliament after the summer recess, which would make the next two weeks the last session of this term.

An early election, which for practical reasons cannot be held much later than May 17, raises the prospect of a simultaneous campaign with the Western Australian state poll scheduled for March 8.

Prime Minister Cook told a business breakfast in Perth on Monday that he was seeking legal advice on whether a change to the election date would be possible if Mr Albanese were to unleash a double campaign.

“We have to be ready for any contingency,” Mr Cook said.

Dutton calls on Albanians to ‘be open’ about election plans

Mr Albanese told reporters in Tasmania he had not spoken to Mr Cook about the issue and said an election would be held “April or earlier”.

“It is the media that seems to be obsessed with the date of the elections. I have read that the elections were supposed to take place in August, September, November and December 7 (which is an option) and are now probably over,” he said.

“The elections, as I have said all along, will take place in 2025.”

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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said any move by Albanese to hold elections in March or earlier would contradict his previous promises.

“If there is a secret discussion or deal going on with the Prime Minister of WA, I think the Prime Minister should be open about it because he has looked the Australian public in the eye before and said he would run for the full term Dutton said.

“If the Prime Minister proposes to hold early elections, moving the date from March in Washington… he must explain why.”

Political insiders on both sides say they are ready for an election at any moment, but the next real window for Mr Albanese to mount a campaign opens shortly after Australia Day.

Factors that could influence his decision include the Reserve Bank of Australia’s first interest rate meeting on February 18 and the next on April 1, whether to cancel the Budget scheduled for March 28, and the timing of the Easter /Anzac Day school holidays.

Albanians promote electoral reforms

A five-week election campaign in late January or early February means the federal election would take place at the same time as Western Australia, where Labor is desperate to retain the seats it won in the 2022 election.

Waiting until after the state election could mean canceling the budget for an April 12 date.

In another sign that Labor is quickly cleaning up its act to keep its options open, Albanese urged parliament to back reforms that would reduce the electoral influence of very wealthy individuals.

“We are enthusiastic about electoral reform because a system where an individual can spend more than $100 million, as we saw in the last two elections, I think undermines democracy,” he said.

Although the changes would not come into effect until the subsequent election, Albanese said Special Secretary of State Don Farrell “would have more to say about that in the coming weeks.”

Critics of current electoral laws point to the outsized influence of figures such as Simon Holmes à Court, founder of Climate 200, a group that helps fund blue-green independents, and Queensland mining billionaire Clive Palmer.

Palmer spent nearly $120 million on general campaigning during the 2022 federal election, resulting in the election of one lawmaker, Ralph Babet.

The United Australia Party’s South Australian senator sparked widespread condemnation this week after posting inflammatory and derogatory comments on social media against people of colour, people with disabilities and the LGBT+ community.

Labor is keen to crack down on such funding, with national secretary Paul Erickson telling a parliamentary committee that a lack of caps has allowed ‘extremely wealthy individuals, groups and networks to distort the political conversation with advertising levels that have been low’. previously unthinkable”.

“The pernicious quality of some of these campaigns undermines confidence in our elections and in the democratic system,” he said.