Australia Federal Election 2013 Recap: Julia Gillard Snubs ALP; Tony Abbott’s Daughters Charm Voters; Australian Labor Party Voters’ Support Up;
Its election campaign day 22 before the Australia Federal Election 2013, and a lot had happened just this weekend: Voters' support for the Australian Labor Party is notch higher compared to past polls; for Tony Abbott's latest campaign in Brisbane, his daughters won the crowd; and ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard snubs her former party's campaign launch.
The Newspoll
In the recent Newspoll conducted exclusively for The Australian in Saturday, Labor's primary vote support is now up by three per cent points at 37 per cent. This was the highest figure obtained by the party in three weeks effort of campaigning. However, the Coalition's primary votes remained in status quo at 47 per cent, still higher to that of the ALP.
Positively, the increase in Labor's primary vote was the first time since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the Sep 7 election date.
The Newspoll also revealed that Mr Rudd was still leading the race as preferred prime minister at 44 per cent, with one per cent increase in votes. Tony Abbott's preferred prime minister vote, on the other hand, decreased at 40 per cent.
Another poll published by The Weekend Australian revealed that Mr Rudd was losing his voters in his very own seat in Griffith. Possibly, if Griffith continues to grow cold on Mr Rudd, he will take after John Howard to have had lost his seat and the election.
The disapproval on Mr Rudd was motivated by Labor's negative advertising and political attack on Mr Abbott.
Mr Abbott warned the Coalition supporters that there will be more negative campaign from Labor directly attacking him.
"Not only is Mr Rudd leading the most incompetent government in our history, he's now running the most dishonest election campaign in our history. And it will just get worse over the next two weeks as the unions spend $12 million on the mother of all scare campaigns, Mr Abbott said during a campaign in Brisbane.
Gillard Snubs ALP
Ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard was missing in any ALP's campaigns and had announced that she will still go MIA (missing-in-action) for ALP's campaign launch on Sunday, Sept 1, 2013.
In a report from AAP, Ms Gillard explained her decision through an official statement.
"I have respectfully decided not to be present at next Sunday's campaign launch because I simply do not want to distract in any way from Kevin Rudd's powerful message to the Australian people. I stand with all those throughout the party, and with our great candidates, in voicing my fervent hope for a decisive Labor victory on September 7."
Abbott's Lucky Charm
At the Coalition's formal launch of its election campaign in Brisbane, daughters of Mr Abbott, Frances and Bridget, were the ones who had won the hearts of the crowd.
The girls went sharing about the "human" side of Mr Abbott as a father, far from being the politician that people know of.
"Today we want to tell you about our dad. Like all dads, our dad has been known to embarrass us.Our dad is not just a politician, not just a Rhodes scholar, or an author, not just a volunteer firefighter or a lifesaver, not just a husband and a father. He's something else as well. Tony Abbott is also a netball dad. For us, he's not just the guy on TV, he's the man, along with our mum, who's helped us become the women we are today."
The daughters told the people that their father told them to "give it everything you've got ... look out for each other ... always get back up and don't forget to shake hands". As how their father interacted with people from all walks of life.
After their speech, Mr Abbott's environment spokesman Greg Hunt joked.
"As good as Tony was, I think Frances and Bridget were the stars."