A top minister has been grilled on the highly-speculated date of the next election after next year’s parliamentary sitting calendar dropped a key detail.
The forecasted schedule revealed the government has moved the budget from its traditional May date to March 25, fuelling rife speculation Anthony Albanese will go full term and hold an election in May.
This means the Prime Minister would call an election by mid-March, allowing it to avoid handing down a budget that is forecast to report a deficit.
Fuelling the May date is also the government surprise inquiry into nuclear power, which will need to release its final report by April 30.
With the committee largely stacked with Labor MPs, the probe will likely throw cold water into the Coalition’s key election promise to build seven nuclear reactors by 2037.
Appearing on Sky on Sunday, Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres tried to bat down the rumours of a May polling date, stating it was a matter for Mr Albanese.
“He will make his mind up at the right time for an election,” he said.
Mr Ayres denied Labor was attempting to fuel election speculation with the release of the parliamentary calendar, which he said was shared to give people “clarity about next year”.
“There’s been some pretty feverish speculation about this, because we released the parliamentary calendar in October,” he said.
“We’ve released the parliamentary calendar. That’s a good thing. (It) gives people a bit of clarity about next year. It adds nothing to what the prime minister or the government said about election time.”
The Coalition’s spokesman for immigration Dan Tehan accused Mr Albanese of fuelling election speculation instead of focusing on issues like the cost-of-living.
“Why did he put the parliamentary calendar out now, it normally comes out late November, early December. He’s done it to run this speculation. He knows he’s got serious internal issues on his side,” he said.
“All he’s looking to do is provide these distractions … and distraction now about when you may or may not have an election is not what the Australian people want.“
However, Peter Dutton has welcomed the later election time, despite telling Coalition members on Tuesday to remain prepared for the possibility of a snap December election.
“To be honest, watching the Albanese government at the moment, I’m happy to see it go longer,” the Opposition Leader told Nine on Friday.
“Whether it’s March or May, I’m watching a slow motion train wreck with the prime minister and here you are still lurking in the background.”
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