Australia's longest-ever election campaign kicked off Wednesday when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the poll would be a full eight months away on September 14.
Three months had previously been the longest interval between setting a date and actual voting.
"Announcing the election date now enables individuals and business, investors and consumers to plan their year," Gillard said, declaring that she would dissolve parliament on August 12.
Her Labor Party is trailing in opinion polls to Tony Abbott's conservatives.
Abbott, who suffered a narrow defeat to Gillard in the August 2010 election, said a centre-right coalition was ready.
"It's more tax or less. It's more regulation or less. It's less competence or more. It's less freedom or more," he said. "That's the clear choice facing the Australian people on September the 14th."
Election analyst Antony Green said the campaign length was unprecedented.
He said Britain had moved to fixed terms as had four of Australia's six states.
"It's falling into a more modern tradition of fixed terms," he said on national broadcaster ABC of Gillard's surprise decision.