UPDATES WITH SQUABBLE OVER IMMIGRATION POLICY
MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) – Australia’s parliament was dissolved Monday after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a federal election for July 2.
News broadcaster ABC reported that the governor general’s proclamation disbanding both houses was read by the office’s secretary Mark Fraser in Canberra, while Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten campaigned in northeast Queensland state.
The ruling Coalition’s deputy leader in Senate, Mathias Cormann, told ABC radio that the election would be “very close”.
“It’s an election where every single vote will matter,” he said. “And every single Australian will have to carefully weigh up their decision whether they’ll support our plans for jobs and growth or whether they want to put that at risk.”
On Sunday, Turnbull officially launched the nation’s longest election campaign since the 1960s, announcing the first double-dissolution election since 1987.
There have only been six such elections — which will see all 150 House of Representatives seats and 76 Senate places up for election — since the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901.
It was triggered by a Senate deadlock April 18 that prevented the government pushing through two bills, the most significant of which would crack down on suspected union corruption in the building and construction sector.
While in the city of Brisbane on Monday, the prime minister continued to focus on jobs and growth, underlining the Coalition’s “economic plan” including how to address youth unemployment.
Meanwhile, members of the coalition have attacked the opposition Labor Party after its Melbourne candidate criticized its deemed compliance with the government’s policy of detaining asylum seekers who arrive by boat in offshore processing centers.
“Enough is enough. We can’t allow this to continue,” ABC quoted Sophie Ismail as saying.
“It’s long past time to put politics aside and work towards a rational, calm, sensible approach that upholds the human rights and human dignity of people who come here seeking asylum.”
Senator Cormann posted on Twitter “Labor clearly cannot be trusted to keep our strong and effective border protection policies in place.”
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton also responded by saying that Ismail’s comments showed division among Labor, and warned that Australia’s borders would be compromised under their rule.
“This is the problem that Labor has got because in opposition they promise they’ll stop the boats and then in government they undo the policies because of internal pressures,” he said.
“What happened under [former PM Kevin] Rudd will happen again under Mr. Shorten if they are elected at this upcoming election,” he added, referring to the more than 20,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia in 2013.
Shorten insisted that “Labor’s policy is clear”, and would “not put the people smugglers back into business”.
“We will not allow policy which sees the mass drowning of vulnerable people seeking to come to this country,” he said.
Australia’s detention of asylum seekers on the Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru has been criticized by rights advocates, who describe conditions at the facilities as appalling.
