The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is poised to call an Australian federal election on Thursday morning after ministers unveiled a spate of last-minute political appointments to government bodies. On Wednesday evening the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, told Radio National that Labor reserved the right to cancel appointments made in proximity to the caretaker period, in a warning shot to the Coalition not to take advantage of what may be its last days in office if Labor’s small but consistent poll lead holds.

Appointments confirmed on Wednesday included the former Liberal partypresident and Howard government minister Richard Alston, who was added to the National Gallery of Australia council and former Liberal MP Ewen Jones, who was appointed to the National Film and Sound Archive board. The attorney general, Christian Porter, countered it was “not unusual” to make nominations in a “compressed timetable” before the caretaker period. Asked on Wednesday night if the election would be called imminently, Porter replied: “There’s an election due before not too long, the prime minister will call that at a time he thinks is appropriate – everyone is gearing up for an election, that much is obvious.” Key staff are in place in the Liberal party headquarters in Brisbane, and the Labor campaign set up operations in Sydney at the weekend.(theguardian)…[+]