Australia Government Facing Embarrassing Defeat

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

The Australian government is set for an embarrassing defeat in this weekend's general election with opinion polls suggesting the main opposition party is heading for a landslide victory.

During the five-week campaign, the opposition leader of the Liberal National coalition, Tony Abbott, has gradually overtaken once-popular Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Jullia Gillard was ousted as prime minister by Mr Rudd in July

Internal bickering in the ruling Labor party saw Mr Rudd oust Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard a few weeks ago, something which she did to him three years earlier.

The feud, however, has not pleased voters who, according to analysts, are now wanting change.

Australian election expert Antony Green says the past few weeks have been "one of the more unusual election campaigns in Australian history".

"It is a minority government going into the election, it is a government well behind in opinion polls that has changed leader at the last minute, and therefore it has been a campaign where the government is trying to make up ground," he said.

Julia Gillard's three-year term was dogged by leadership speculation, party instability and rumours of Rudd trying to engineer a return to the prime minister's office.

The leadership change provided an immediate opinion poll boost for Labor but as the election campaign moved on Rudd's popularity has slipped.

Sky News Australia's political correspondent Laura Jayes says the disruption within the Labor ranks has gone down badly with voters.

She said: "People don't like that at all.

"It's been chaotic inside the Labor camp for a good three years, but they are also a little concerned about Tony Abbott and what kind of man and Prime Minister he might be."

Mr Abbott has appealed to voters who want a change in Australia

Mr Green says there are three major issues for voters - the state of the economy, strategies for controlling asylum-seeker arrivals, and the recently introduced carbon tax.

"Australia's economy is doing well but Australians don't perceive it is doing well because they're not comparing it with overseas," he said.

"There's the issue of asylum seekers and refugees arriving by boat, that's deeply unpopular in the electorate, and the current government has been responsible for surging those numbers and is blamed for it.

"The third issue would be the carbon tax and climate change. There is still a lot of unpopularity about the Gillard government introducing a carbon tax."

Mr Abbott, unpopular in opinion polls for months, has seen his credibility improve in recent weeks.

He has been in Parliament for almost two decades, and for a time was health minister.

He trained briefly as a priest, is a fitness fanatic famous for wearing tight swimming trunks and also volunteers for Australia's Rural Fire Service.

Deeply religious, some of his more conservative views on issues such as abortion and gay marriage have not pleased some.

Questions have also been asked about his attitude towards women, Julia Gillard famously labelling him a misogynist in a heart-felt speech in Parliament.

While Labor and the coalition are the only parties capable of winning a majority in the House of Representatives (lower house), a number of smaller parties could win seats and control the balance of power in the Senate (upper house).

The Greens currently hold the balance of power there, while the new WikiLeaks Party is also fielding Senate candidates in three states.

Even undecided Australians must choose someone, as voting in Australia is mandatory. 

Around a million people an hour will pass through polling stations on Saturday.

In such a large country polling has already begun in some areas with ballot boxes taken to extremely rural locations, particularly remote Aboriginal communities.

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