Prime Minister Scott Morrison will call the federal election on Thursday after returning to Canberra to announce May 18 as the date when Australians will go to the polls.
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Mr Morrison arranged to fly from Melbourne to Canberra late on Wednesday in order to be ready to see the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, early the next day to ask that Parliament be dissolved.
Public servants are preparing to enter caretaker mode on Friday night.
The Coalition cleared the way for the announcement by making another round of appointments to government posts on Wednesday afternoon, with former Liberal Party president and cabinet minister Richard Alston one of the winners.
Mr Morrison declared the election would be about "how you keep the economy strong and the budget in balance" so the Commonwealth could fund services like health.
"You can't pay for the healthcare needs of Australians if you can't run a strong economy. You can't pay for the Medicare needs of Australians if you can't balance the budget," he said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it was time to "get on with it" and call the poll.
"The Australian people actually want to make a choice," he said.
"Six years of instability, six years, three prime ministers ... enough is enough, time's up, let's have an election."
Mr Alston was named to the council of the National Gallery of Australia while former Liberal National Party MP Ewen Jones was appointed to the board of the National Film and Sound Archive.
A former adviser to federal Liberal ministers, Philip Lindsay, was nominated as Australia's director to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, giving him a two-year posting in London.
Earlier announcements included posts for former Victorian Liberal state minister Hugh Delahunty and former Nationals director Scott Mitchell.
Mr Shorten has accused Mr Morrison of delaying the election to continue public advertising campaigns that might shore up the government.
Labor estimates the campaigns could be costing taxpayers $600,000 per day.
The caretaker conventions state that agencies should stop advertising that "emphasises the achievements of the government or a minister" when the caretaker period begins.
Mr Morrison has campaigned on local issues in Launceston, the Gold Coast and western Sydney, including a pledge of $200 million for a new bridge across the Hawkesbury River in North Richmond.
With opinion polls showing a swing of 2 to 3 per cent against the Coalition since the last election, the government is at risk of losing more than a dozen seats, but the local spending pledges are aimed at staving off this national swing in each key seat.
Mr Shorten has spent this week campaigning in Launceston, Melbourne, northern NSW, Brisbane and northern Queensland with an emphasis on his $2.3 billion plan to cut the cost of cancer treatment.
- SMH/The Age
