Australia's election campaign a matter of trust

1.00pm

CANBERRA - Australia's political leaders hit the hustings on Monday with a blitz of the airwaves to set the tone for the country's longest election campaign in 20 years -- who do voters trust?

"Poll choice is truth or dare" The Australian newspaper's headline read, while The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age stated "It's a matter of trust".

The Daily Telegraph described the countdown to the October 9 poll as a "Six week marathon".

Prime Minister John Howard and his conservative government and main opposition Labor and its leader Mark Latham are preparing to battle it out on the key issues of national security and the country's robust economy in a bid to win voters' trust.

Laurie Oakes, an Australian political commentator, said the core of the campaign would be who can best manage the economy with the impending release of Labor's long-awaited tax policy pivotal in the fight for power.

"The (government's) budget tax cuts totally neglected, left out, everyone earning A$52,000 or less, so there's a huge mass of people that Labor plans to appeal to with its tax cuts," Oakes told Australian television.

"On the other hand though, the tax policy and the family policy will be the test of Labor's economic credibility. If they don't add up ... then that will undermine Labor because the core of this campaign is who can best manage the economy."

Howard's government won the November 2001 election on the back of a strong economy and hardline stand against illegal immigration, but his credibility has recently come under fire with claims he lied to voters on the eve of that poll.

The 2004 election campaign got underway as the Australian parliament's upper house Senate prepared to convene an inquiry into Howard's honesty.

A former defence adviser sparked the row over the prime minister's credibility when he said Howard lied in 2001 by sticking with claims boat people had thrown children overboard in a bid to win asylum, despite being told the story was false.

"The Australian people will make decisions about my credibility. They will also make a decision about who they better trust to keep their interest rates down, who they better trust to protect their living standards," Howard told Australian radio.

"Who they better trust to lead Australia in the fight against international terrorism."

Opinion polls have shown the government running neck-and-neck with Labor on primary votes, but Labor leads substantially on a two-party preferred basis, where minority party votes are distributed to major parties and ultimately decide elections.

"My very clear intention as the alternative prime minister is to keep the budget in surplus and run a lean, efficient government for the future," Latham told Australian radio, adding Labor would release its tax policy in the first half of the campaign.

- REUTERS