Australians will vote on October 9 in a cliff-hanger election pitting the conservative government against centre-left Labour, with national security and the economy key issues, Prime Minister John Howard said on Sunday.
Howard ended months of phoney election campaigning by announcing the date when his Liberal/National coalition government would seek a fourth consecutive term in office.
"This election will be about trust," Howard told reporters at Parliament House in the nation's capital, Canberra.
"Who do you trust to keep the economy strong and protect family living standards? Who do you trust to lead the fight, on Australia's behalf, against international terrorism?" he said.
Howard's eight-year-old old government has trailed Labour and its new-generation leader, Mark Latham, in recent opinion polls. Howard was also behind in opinion polls before he was re-elected in November 2001.
"Australia needs a change of government. Australia needs to move to a new generation of national leadership," Latham told reporters in Sydney.
Australian voters will now have six weeks of campaigning to decide whether to hand 65-year-old Howard another term or vote him out in favour of Labour and Latham, 22 years his junior.
"They are going to ask themselves which of these two blokes is more likely to keep my mortgage affordable ... that's far more important than the age difference between Mr Latham and myself," Howard said.
Opinion polls have shown the government running neck-and-neck with Labour on primary votes.
But Labour leads substantially on a two-party preferred basis, where minority party votes are distributed to major parties and ultimately decide elections.
"I think this is shaping up to be an election when the campaign itself may very well determine the outcome," the managing director of Newspoll, Sol Lebovic, told Australian television. Howard is banking on his government's impressive economic record and strong stand on national security, which included sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan in enthusiastic support of the United States.
"The election will be about the future of this nation over the next 10 years," Howard said.
Howard's government won the November 2001 election on the back of a strong economy and hard-line stand against illegal immigration, but his credibility has recently come under fire with claims he lied to voters on the eve of that poll.
Labour pounced on the issue of Howard's honesty this month when a former defence adviser said Howard lied in 2001 by sticking with claims boat people had thrown children overboard in a bid to win asylum, despite being told the story was false.
Howard has rejected the accusation and said voters were the "lie detectors of Australian politics" and they would judge his honesty.
Latham pledged to make truth in government, along with domestic issues such as health and education, a main election issue.
"In this campaign Labour will be highlighting the failures of the Howard government, the dishonesty, the attacks on Medicare, the loss of affordable education, the way it has made Australia less safe in the war against terror," Latham said.
"But overwhelmingly our campaign will be positive. We will be putting forward positive solutions for the benefit of the Australian people."
Howard visited Government House earlier on Sunday to seek approval for the election from Governor-General Michael Jeffery, the representative of head of state Queen Elizabeth of Britain.
Australian governments are elected to three-year terms from the date of the first sitting of parliament but can call fresh elections at any time in that period.
An election could have been held as late as April 16, 2005, but Howard has long said he would go to the polls before the end of 2004.