The wait is finally over -- the election race has begun.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has officially called a double dissolution election for July the 2nd.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked the Governor-General Peter Cosgrove to dissolve both the lower and upper houses, and confirmed Australians will go to the polls on July the 2nd.
Both Houses of Parliament have been dissolved and all 150 House of Representatives seats, and 76 Senate places, are up for election.
The election campaign will last for eight weeks and is likely to focus on economic growth, jobs and education.
Mr Turnbull says the government's election campaign will focus on the economic plan Treasurer Scott Morrison announced in his budget last week.
PM Turnbull said, "I have returned from visiting the Governor-General, as you have observed. The Governor-General has accepted my advice to dissolve both houses of Parliament effective tomorrow morning, and call an election for both houses, a double dissolution, on the 2nd of July. At this election, Australians will have a very clear choice - to keep the course, maintain the commitment to our national economic plan for growth and jobs, or go back to Labor, with its higher-taxing, higher spending, debt and deficit agenda."
Opposition leader Bill Shorten is confident about his party's election campaign, saying that Labor is ready for a July vote.
Mr Shorten says the election will be fought on issues that he believes are "vital" to the majority of Australians. Mr. Shorten said, "I will fight this election on schools and education. I will fight this election for health, hospitals and Medicare. I will fight this election for real action on climate change. I will fight this election to help create a vibrant economy - growing jobs, with reasonable conditions, and security for all. I will fight this election to make Australia a fairer place, where the needs of families, small businesses, the great bulk of Australians, are placed at the top of the priority list."
The Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, gave a message of unity between his party and the Liberals, saying he hopes the Coalition government will continue into the next parliament.
Speaking to his New South Wales electorate of New England, Mr Joyce said voters want someone who has a long-term plan for Australia. "I think our electorate will make a clear choice about where their future lies, and who has the best prospects of being able to deliver to their electorate over the longer term. But this is not an election about me. It's an election about our nation. It's an election about the prosperity of our nation. There is one thing I can completely assure you - that the people of the New England are terribly proud to be part of this incredible nation called the Commonwealth of Australia. They too know this is vastly greater than just a story about them. "
Greens Party leader, Richard Di Natale, used his response to the election announcement to accuse the two major parties of ignoring the renewable energy economy, in their campaigns.
Senator Di Natale said ignoring the environment will also impact jobs, "We have got the government, who talks about its economic plan for jobs and growth, and he's completely silent on the biggest driver of new jobs, of growth, in Australia, and that is the transition to the clean economy. So, ensuring that we get a thriving renewable energy industry, the thousands of jobs, the tens of thousands of jobs that will come from advanced manufacturing, from the installation of solar panels, from all of the things that will flow on from the renewable energy economy. That is where Australia's economic prosperity lies. We have two old parties, stuck in the past, continuing to prop up these old polluting fossil fuel industries."
