Australian election too close to call: polls

SYDNEY: Election too close to call, polls indicated yesterday, as the ruling conservative coalition narrowed the gap with the main opposition Labor Party, three days before the country decides on a new government.

Centreleft Labor’s lead over the LiberalNational coalition has shrunk to 51%49% on a twoparty preferred basis from 5446% two weeks ago, a poll done for the Sydney Morning Herald showed. A Guardian poll indicated Labor’s lead had dipped to 48%46% from 49%45% two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the prepolling trends as ‘‘really encouraging’’, while Labor acknowledged the election would be ‘‘incredibly close’’.

Rising living costs have dominated the final stretches of the campaign.

Australian wage growth rose by only a fraction last quarter, data out yesterday showed, even as a tightening labour market and record vacancies heightened competition for workers.

But consumer price inflation has risen twice as fast as wages, keeping real income in the red.

‘‘I have been very candid with Australians about the economic challenges we’re facing . . . Labor has no magic bullet on this, they have no magic pen or magic wand,’’ Morrison told reporters from the marginal Laborheld seat of Corangamite in Victoria.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese blamed government mismanagement for the slow rise in wages and inflation shock.

‘‘Australian workers are paying the price for a decade of bad policy and economic failures,’’ Albanese said.

Nearly 6 million voters out of 17 million have already cast their ballots through postal votes or early inperson voting. — Reuters