Senior Coalition and Labor politicians wasted no time in trying to win over voters, spruiking their policies on the first official day of the federal election campaign.
As they head into the eight week pre-election period by visiting marginal seats in Queensland, the latest opinion polls puts the two major parties neck and neck.
"I, Governor General, the honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove, do by this proclamation, dissolve the Senate and the House of Representatives, at 9am on Monday 9 May 2016. Signed and sealed with the great seal of Australia on 8 May 2016, Peter Cosgrove Governor General and by His Excellency's command Malcolm Turnbull Prime Minister."
And just like that, the 44th Parliament was dissolved.
Watched on by a small group of parliamentary staff and media outside Parliament House in Canberra, the proclamation was read out by the Governor General's official secretary Mark Fraser.
It paved the way for the official election campaign to begin.
And begin it did.
Both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten have been in Queensland on the first full day of campaigning for the federal election.
While not making any policy announcements, Mr Turnbull stepped out pushing the Coalition's vision for the future.
He insists the government's national economic plan, that includes $50 billion of business tax cuts, will be positive for the outlook.
"It is very clear that as you reduce business taxes, you will get more investment and more employment. And the Australian Treasury estimated last year that for every dollar of company tax cut, there was four dollars of additional value created in the overall economy."
Campaigning in Tamworth, Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce urged Australians to carefully consider their votes in the upcoming double-dissolution election.
He faces a strong challenge in his seat of New England from independent candidate Tony Windsor, who retired ahead of the 2013 election, but is recontesting it in the wake of a local battle between a coal mine development and farmers.
Mr Joyce says it's an election about capabilities, not personalities.
"What record have you got to show that you have the capacity to run the country. What record can you show to clearly spell out that in the future you will leave your people in a better position. What I really want to show is that in the future, which is the only place any of us are ever going to live, that the better plan is with the Liberal National coalition."
Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten made his first official policy announcement during a visit to Cairns in Queensland's far north.
At a school in the Liberal-held seat of Leichhardt he announced Labor's "You Child. Our Future" plan, which would see an additional $96 million put towards improving outcomes for Indigenous students around Australia.
He says, if elected, hundreds of scholarships will also be offered to help train Indigenous Australians to become teachers.
"Labor's committed to providing Australian kids with the best teachers possible. So 400 additional scholarships over the next four years and that means, I believe, that we are going to have better quality teachers in our schools."
Mr Shorten says at the moment up to five per cent of the national school population has an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, but only one per cent of teachers share that background.
The scholarships will come at a cost of nearly five million dollars, over four years.
They'll be split evenly between men and women and Labor will work with state governments and universities to decide where the scholarships are allocated.
Mr Shorten was joined in making the announcement by new Labor senator and Indigenous leader Pat Dodson.
Mr Dodson says he hopes more teachers will be brought to Indigenous communities, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children will be inspired.
"The importance of having models, Indigenous models, in the classrooms encouraging young indigenous peoples to pursue their dreams and aspirations and education is so critical."
Mr Shorten will next take his campaign on a two-and-a-half-week education-focused tour down the east coast, from Cairns to Canberra, stopping at 30 electorates along the way.
He'll be hoping to build on a trend of his party's apparent growth in popularity among voters, after the latest Newspoll showed Labor maintaing its lead of 51 per cent to the Coalition's 49 per cent in two-party preferred terms.
Share
