Mayday, mayday
While conventional thinking has Anthony Albanese eyeing an early April election, there are plenty of signs that the prime minister has not ruled out going to the polls in May.
Anthony Albanese’s speech to the National Press Club last Friday was not that of a man who is about to race off to Yarralumla to call an election.
As cabinet meets today and with parliament returning for a sitting fortnight from next week, it has been the expectation for some time that the prime minister was eyeing an election date of 5 April or 12 April. The latter is the last conceivable date you could have an election without holding the budget, which is set down for 25 March.
The conventional thinking within Labor has been that Albanese doesn’t want to have a budget because of the poor state of the nation’s finances but also wants to hold off calling the election for as long as possible, leading many to land on 12 April as the most likely date.
But there are three factors that could — and we emphasise, could — convince Albanese to hold on (the election can be held as late as 17 May).
