(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) could win tomorrow’s election to the House of Representatives, according to a poll by AC Nielsen released by the Sydney Morning Herald. 48 per cent of respondents would vote for the ALP, while 40 per cent would back the governing Coalition of Liberals and Nationals.

The Australian Greens are third with seven per cent. Australia’s preferential voting system—where electors indicate an order of predilection for each contender, and the ballots from smaller parties are re-distributed—gives the ALP a 14-point lead over the Coalition.

In the October 2004 election, John Howard was rewarded with a fourth term in office, as the Coalition secured 87 seats in the House of Representatives. The ALP—led by Mark Latham—elected 60 lawmakers. In December 2006, foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd became the new leader of the ALP, defeating Kim Beazley in an internal caucus ballot.

On Nov. 21, Rudd criticized the current government’s industrial relations legislation, saying, "The history of the Howard government is so much a history of a wasted mandate. I barely walk through a shopping centre in Australia without people telling me about the impact WorkChoices is having on their lives. Mr. Howard these days treats working people as economic commodities."

The legislative election is scheduled for Nov. 24.

Polling Data

What party would you vote for in the next parliamentary election?

Source: AC Nielsen / The Sydney Morning Herald
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 2,071 Australian voters, conducted from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21, 2007. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

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