Anthony Albanese’s declaration the election will be called ‘soon’ risks looking like a vote of no confidence in Labor’s budget

It looks likely that the PM will call an election in the coming days, possibly as soon as Friday. Artwork: Frank Ling

Anthony Albanese’s declaration that the election will be called “soon” - and the expectation that soon will be Friday for May 3 - risks looking like a vote of no confidence in Jim Chalmers’ budget and panic at Peter Dutton’s reply.

The Prime Minister has always said the election will be in May and resisted pressure from within to go earlier, either last year or early this year.

A May 3 election is not an “early election” and within the accepted definition of full term - given the need for a half-Senate election - but it means Labor is giving up a full week of campaigning from government to sell the budget.

The unrushed tradition for a pre-election budget is to deliver the budget and then spend at least a week selling the good news across the nation using all the advantages of incumbency.

Calling an election on Friday immediately starts the campaign and puts the Opposition Leader on an equal standing.

But beyond the logistics the political view will be that the budget has bombed, the criticism from economists and industry about the long-term outlook is correct and that the big surprise tax cuts of $5 a week in 2026 have been dismissed and derided as a cup of coffee in a year’s time.

It also looks like Dutton’s budget-in-reply speech - not even delivered until Thursday night - with a halving of petrol excise meaning a saving of about $40 on a tank of petrol now has trumped the tax cuts.

Albanese and the Treasurer are attacking Dutton’s proposal as a brain snap and irresponsible but giving up a week of debate suggests they think the battle is lost.

Adding to the idea of budget political failure is the fact that a May 3 election will include the long-weekend holidays on the two weeks before polling day which suggests Labor wants to “freeze” the election campaign when voters are away on Easter and Anzac holidays to reduce debate.

Neither side is being economically responsible in the long term but Dutton appears to have delivered the “speech of his life” without actually delivering it.