The conservative government delivered a spending plan yesterday that effectively doubled as the launch of its election campaign, after Turnbull said he planned to use a political deadlock over industrial relations to dissolve parliament.
• Budget for 'extraordinary times'
The Liberal-National coalition, which returned to power in 2013, has lost its lead against the opposition Labor party in the latest polls, with the two sides now running neck-and-neck, but Turnbull said he expected to win.
"I am quietly confident that the Australian people will give us another term in government," he said on Channel 9 TV.
"You can expect there to be an election on the second of July," Turnbull said in an interview on Australia Broadcasting Corp radio this morning, adding that he would call the poll "between now and the 11th of May."
The government handed down its budget the same day that the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a record low of 1.75% seeking to restrain a rising currency and stem deflation.
Turnbull said the move made sense given that inflation was below the central bank's target band.
The election campaign will run for eight weeks, the longest since the 1980s.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was full of optimism, telling the Nine Network Labor today he believed he could win.
"I can be prime minister," he said.
- Reuters and AAP
