​It’s (Actually) On: Malcolm Turnbull Calls Australian Election

After months of speculation and "It's On!" headlines, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has pulled the trigger and asked Governor-General Peter Cosgrove to call a double dissolution election for July 2.

The day started with a false start: Early Sunday morning, while Tony Abbott was likely halfway through his weekly 100 kilometre bike ride, the new PM hopped into a car and sent the Australian media into a tailspin. Newsreaders cut from their morning headlines to shaky footage of Turnbull, breathlessly announcing he was on his way to see the Governor-General, despite the fact the PM was in Sydney not Canberra.

In reality, Turnbull was just on his way to Centennial Park for a Mother's Day brunch. It was only after brunch that the PM—a man clearly with his priorities in order—flew to Canberra to meet with the Cosgrove. With eight weeks until Australia goes to the polls, this will be the longest election campaign in more than 50 years.

Right now, the Liberal Party is in the lead—but only just. If Labor wants to take hold of government, it will need to capture 21 seats.

This seemed an impossible feat just a few months ago when Malcolm Turnbull first rolled Tony Abbott for the top job. But now Seven-ReachTel's latest poll puts the two majors at 50-50 in a two-party preferred split.

In such a tight race, preferences from the Greens, and other minor and independent parties—who collectively hold 22 percent of the vote—will likely play a central role. Clive Palmer's recent retirement from the House of Representatives is also an interesting factor with the embattled miner holding 11 percent of the primary vote in Queensland, and 5.5 percent nationally.

Leaked polling from the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, which has predicted every election since 1972, shows it will likely side with Labor. But Turnbull consistently leads in the preferred PM stakes against the persistently unpopular Bill Shorten.

Last week, both parties put their pitch to the public with Turnbull releasing his first budget on May 3, and Labor's budget reply just two days later. The general consensus was that the government played it safe, offering generous effective tax breaks to middle income earners and slashing corporate tax. Foreign aid and the environment lost out once again.

VICE's Royce Kurmelovs surmised that Labor's alternative budget was designed to appeal to the Little Guy. "This time around, the Coalition have pretty much nothing to offer people aged 25 or under, which has given Labor an opening through their promise to do something about the fact that pretty much anyone who falls into that age bracket is never going to own their own home," he wrote. With housing prices rising in most major Australian cities, Turnbull's steadfast support for negative gearing may prove a wedge for younger voters in this election.

Australia's controversial asylum seeker policy will likely be the leading social issue of this election. In the wake of the Papua New Guinean Supreme Court calling for the closure of Manus Island, and the self-immolation by two young detainees on Nauru, offshore processing is under renewed scrutiny both in Australia and internationally. While both major parties currently hold the same hard line on border protection, two months is a lifetime in politics.

For all the latest, check out the VICE Guide to the Australian Election.