Australian election 2010

Labor's hopes of winning the August 21 election received a double fillip on Monday with the first Newspoll of the campaign giving it a commanding lead over the coalition, and an agreement hatched with the Australian Greens on preferences.

The Australian election campaign, which was robustly - brutally, some might say - signalled when Julia Gillard toppled Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, got under way proper last Saturday when she announced the poll would be held on August 21.

Women like Julia Gillard but men are less enamoured, according to the latest Age-Nielsen poll.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is going to fight hard under a growing wave of bad polls, cabinet leaks and the ever present shadow of Kevin Rudd.

The campaign leading up to today's Australian general election has been fought determinedly at the shallow end of the political pool.

Australians will decide today whether they will cut down their first woman prime minister after only two months in power and return to conservative rule in a cliffhanger election that threatens the survival of a first-term centre-left government.

Most political pundits are forecasting a close Labor victory in today's Australian federal election, with exit polls showing the government just ahead of the coalition.

A host of former Liberal MPs look set to return to the parliament as the coalition races ahead of Labor in a swag of crucial marginal seats in Queensland.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says it's too early to celebrate an election win.