CANBERRA, July 15 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is likely to call an election on Saturday for August 28, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday quoting Labor party sources.
The ABC said Gillard would visit Governor-General Quentin Bryce in Canberra on Saturday morning to seek permission to call an election.
Gillard’s Labor government is narrowly ahead in opinion polls but is struggling to sell sensitive policies on the economy, resources, climate and asylum seekers.
Gillard has pledged to introduce a new 30 percent mining tax if elected, raising A$10.5 billion from 2012, but the opposition has vowed to dump the tax, even though it has been agreed by global miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata
The government has also said it will return a bugdet surplus by 2013, although opinion polls show voters view the Liberal-National opposition as better economic managers, despite Labor steering the economy through the global financial crisis and avoiding recession.
Australia’s first female prime minister was appointed in a Labor party coup on June 24, toppling Kevin Rudd, in an effort to avoid electoral defeat, with opinion polls then showing Labor was headed to be a one-term government.
Gillard has ressurected Labor’s standing in opinion polls , but opposition conservative leader Tony Abbott needs to win only nine seats from the government to take office.
Many voters have also deserted the major parties for the small Greens party, which is set to be the kingmaker in the upper house Senate and influence policy of the next government.
