Unofficial election campaign kicks off

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australians face a choice between the future and the past at this year's federal election.

In Queensland to announce funding to upgrade the Bruce Highway, Mr Albanese said the 2025 federal election would see a Labor government “building Australia’s future” go up against the Peter Dutton-led Coalition that was determined to take the country “backwards”.

It is a strategy that carries a certain degree of risk. In the 1990s, John Howard offered Australians the return of a comfortable past, which contrasted with then Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating’s “vision thing” of a brave new future centred in Asia. The electorate stumped for Mr Howard’s offering and kept him in power for more than a decade. More recently, Donald Trump was returned to the White House offering the American people a return to a golden age, in contrast to Kamala Harris’ entreaties of “never going back”.

In Queensland, Mr Albanese announced the highway funding in Gympie, which sits in the seat of Wide Bay, held by the National Party on a very comfortable margin of 11.3 per cent. Mr Albanese made a point of highlighting that Wide Bay was not in play at this year’s election, saying he was “determined to represent all Australians, regardless of where they live”.

That may be true. But it is equally true that the entire state of Queensland — which will benefit from the highway upgrade — is vital to Labor’s prospects at the election. The state is the federal Coalition’s strongest state, with Labor holding just five of its 30 lower house seats. In addition, both Mr Dutton and the Deputy Opposition Leader, David Littleproud, hail from Queensland.

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