Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears likely to call the election this weekend, as a Liberal Party stoush continues in the courts.
Mr Morrison is understood to have events planned in Melbourne on Friday, as he continues to spruik federal budget initiatives and attack Labor as unfit for office.
The prime minister is awaiting the result of a special leave application to the High Court by expelled NSW Liberal member Matthew Camenzuli.
Mr Camenzuli who is challenging the federal executive's ability to intervene in the selection of NSW candidates for the election, which is due to be held on May 14 or 21.
A federal panel comprising Mr Morrison, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and former party president Chris McDiven stepped in to save ministers Sussan Ley and Alex Hawke, and backbencher Trent Zimmerman from being dumped as candidates.
The High Court will decide whether to allow special leave to hear the application at 4pm on Friday.
A successful court action could also put nine other NSW Liberal candidate selections in jeopardy.
A senior Liberal figure told AAP this would effectively mean "game over" for the Morrison government.
The coalition is well behind Anthony Albanese's Labor team in published opinion polls.
An average of polls, published by election analyst William Bowe, puts Labor on 55.3 per cent of the two-party preferred vote - a 6.8 per cent turnaround on the 2019 election result.
Labor's vote appears to be strongest in SA, Victoria and WA, while little change is expected in Queensland.
The opposition needs to gain a net eight seats on a uniform swing of 3.2 per cent for a majority, but it is already notionally up one seat with the creation of the seat of Hawke in Victoria.
Mr Morrison's pitch centres on the government's economic and health efforts in getting through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
"My opponent in this election, Anthony Albanese, is a blank page," he told reporters on Thursday.
"And at a time of great uncertainty ... not just in the economy, but also in terms of national security, a blank page is no answer to the problems that Australians face."
Mr Albanese, who will be in Adelaide on Friday, summed up his platform on Thursday as seeking "a better future for Australia where no one is left behind and no one held back".
"Where we make more things here, where people have more secure work, and they have a better standard of living through cheaper electricity prices by acting on climate change, and cheaper child care."
He points to infighting within the Liberals as a sign the government is more concerned with its own survival than issues of importance to Australians.
As well as 151 House of Representative seats, 40 spots in the Senate will be up for grabs at the election.
© AAP 2022