Rudd expected to call September 7 election
Election call expected as Rudd heads to airport
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has touched down in Canberra and is expected to visit the Governor General this afternoon call an election for September 7.
Mr Rudd and wife Therese Rein boarded a plane after midday (AEST) at Brisbane airport, touching down in Canberra shortly before 3pm.
Overnight agreements with Western Australia and Victoria on DisabilityCare and schools funding respectively have cleared the way for an election announcement.
On Saturday, Rudd had tried to hose down speculation over a September 7 date, citing further negotiations on those two deals along with negotiations over environmental assessment procedures in NSW.
"These three negotiations haven't reached a conclusion yet, so we have a few things to attend to yet," he told reporters in Brisbane on Saturday.
"So therefore on your question (about September 7), I've made no determination whatsoever in terms of the date of an election."
The final stumbling blocks for a September 7 election appeared to have fallen away this morning with the announcement of the agreements with Victoria and Western Australia - deals which were hailed by Education Minister Bill Shorten.
"Here you have governments of different political persuasions putting the politics and the white noise ... to one side and saying what's in the best interest of kids," Mr Shorten said.
He fired a shot at those governments still refusing to sign up over fears of a "Canberra power grab".
"People across the political divide including my Liberal counterpart here ... have said we want to be part of this," he told reporters.
The West Australian, Northern Territory and Queensland governments are still holding out and Mr Shorten said he was "pessimistic" about Queensland's chances of signing a deal.
The September 7 date has surprised some as Rudd hinted on Saturday that he intended to go to the G20 leaders summit in Russia, scheduled just days beforehand.
It's now likely that Foreign Minister Bob Carr will attend instead.
A September 7 poll would be the first September election since 1946.
