Gillard confident of election win
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told her MPs this election year will not be for the faint-hearted, but in a spirited call-to-arms says Labor can win in September as the 'white noise' of politics falls away.
Ms Gillard on Sunday declared she would prevail against negative 'chit-chat' pointing to a drubbing in four months' time, including from some Labor MPs who have told News Ltd they expect a 'bloodbath' costing 35 to 40 seats.
The prime minister admitted it's been politically tough for the ALP and she has 'done some tough things, some unpopular things'.
However, after a week in which she secured bipartisan support for a levy to pay disability care reforms, she told ABC TV: 'When people vote in September, a lot of the white noise that is politics and has been in politics over the last few years will fall away'.
'People will be there, in a polling place, with a ballot paper in front of them, and it will be a very clear choice: do I want ... Julia Gillard, a majority Labor government, a focus on jobs and on the services my family needs, a clear plan for the future?
'Or do I want the leader of the Opposition, Mr. Abbott, with his very clear plan for cutbacks?
'I believe we can win, because at the end of the day Australians are a smart people; the facts matter, the policies matter, and there we are with the right answers.'
Ms Gillard said it was her job to lead by example and inject a fighting spirit into her troops: 'We've got to get out and win this'.
'Yes, we are not in a period where it is any time for the faint-hearted,' she said.
'I'm pretty used to the negative chit-chat, and I'm pretty used to prevailing against that negative chit-chat, and I'll do that again in September.'
The prime minister's message was much the same when she addressed more than 20,000 workers at the May Day march in Brisbane, whom she urged to 'get out and fight'.
'I'll be proud to be with you leading that fight every day between now and September,' she said at RNA Showgrounds.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith also talked up Labor's election hopes, recalling Labor's surprise 1993 federal election victory when voters 'saw the whites of (Liberal leader) John Hewson's eyes'.
'Don't count out the government,' Mr Smith told Sky News.
'This thing will go down to the wire.'
Fresh from signing Victoria up to the DisabilityCare Australia scheme, Ms Gillard said the half-a-percentage point increase in the Medicare levy should remain in place, regardless of any return to budget surplus.
'I think this needs to be there as a funding source for all of time,' she told ABC television.
'I think it is fair to say to Australians that you will be asked for a little bit more in order to fund something that we all benefit from.'
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
