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Anthony Albanese will call the 2025 federal election tomorrow morning, 9News understands, ending months of speculation about when Australians will head to the polls.
9News Political Editor Charles Croucher tonight revealed the prime minister will visit the governor-general on Friday to request a May 3 election.
"I understand the prime minister will go visit the governor-general tomorrow morning and ask her to call an election for May 3," Croucher said on 9News.
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"It will be a five-week campaign with breaks for Easter and Anzac Day, and an election fought primarily on the cost of living and two different directions for our country."
Croucher's confirmation tonight comes after much speculation today that Albanese would call the election tomorrow, seeking to capitalise on the government's $17 billion tax cut announcement in Tuesday's federal budget – and the Coalition's pledge to repeal those cuts should it win the vote in May.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has instead promised to temporarily halve the fuel excise if elected.
Adding to the speculation was a hastily-deleted social media post in which the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said the government is now in "caretaker mode", which happens when parliament is dissolved following an election being called.
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The post was quickly deleted just a few minutes later.
Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash raised it when she asked Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Glyn Davis, if the government had switched to caretaker mode.
Davis addressed the post while in Senate estimates and said the post was "clearly an error".
"I will just say obviously this is an error and we apologise for that – it was up for a period of four minutes – I became aware of it approximately nine minutes ago, and my corporate colleagues are addressing how this occurred," Davis said.
"I can assure you we are not in caretaker.
"This is clearly an error, we are trying to find out why it occurred and we apologise."
Foreign Minister Penny Wong then jokingly "does that mean I can leave?" and said she was interested to learn who "fesses up" to the post.
Calling an election tomorrow could be a strategic move to redirect attention from Dutton's budget reply speech, to be delivered later this evening.
The opposition leader earlier today announced plans to cut fuel excise costs for a year as part of his budget reply.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in response the federal government would not match Dutton's excise pledge.
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