CANBERRA, June 11 Asia in Focus - The date for the next federal election was yet to be decided, Prime Minister John Howard said. Mr Howard refused to rule out August 7 as a possible election date, but said the poll could be held early in the new year.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/040611/3/peuo.html
* He said he was still a long way from making a decision on when the election would be.
* He acknowledged though that it would occur within the next six months.

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Howard has his Tampa 2004. Like Tampa, it involves the participation of a foreign power and exemplifies the politics of winning votes through fear. Unlike Tampa, that participation is voluntary and very deliberate
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/09/1086749764191.html

This morning’s page one lead story by Paul Kelly in The Australian left us in no doubt about the deal or that Rupert Murdoch, an enthusiastic Bush backer, would promote the campaign through his media assets.

The US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is America’s second most senior diplomat, but diplomacy, let alone respect for Australian democracy, went out the window in his chat with Kelly.

He mounted an unprecedented and blatant propaganda strike to re-elect Howard through fear that if we elected Latham America would abandon the alliance. His arguments could, and probably were, written by Howard. The echo chamber payback.

Armitage also laid on the line something Howard has only dared hint at – that the Free Trade Agreement with the US was conditional on us staying in Iraq. Yes, it is blood for money. And it is money for political slavery.

(And have a look at today’s Australian editorial on Abu Ghraib, almost literally a composite of Alexander Downer’s increasingly ludicrous attempts to deny what the facts have shown – that Australia was an accessory after the fact to the war crimes at Abu Ghraib and helped the Yanks argue that the Geneva Conventions did not apply. It even praises Downer’s Lateline interview this week, where he answered not one question asked and admitted he hadn’t even bothered to read the crucial documents in Australia’s possession. This ain’t journalism, it's crude political propaganda which shames Australian journalism and stinks to high heaven.)

The fear politics of Tampa Mark 2 is escalating so quickly that it looks to me like Howard will go early, perhaps as early as August 7.

First we had George Bush – the man whose handpicked puppet to rule Iraq Ahmed Chalabi had just been disowned as a suspected spy for Iran, and who was about to announce the resignation of the CIA director George Tenet – stand beside Howard to say it would be “disastrous” for Latham to pull Australia out of Iraq.

If Australians are shit scared that we’re entering World War III, they might do anything to keep America onside. That’s what Howard promises and what his media backers will ram down our throats.

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Bush knew exactly what he was doing with these remarks. Bush and Howard have the closest personal relationship there has been between a US president and an Australian prime minister. When Bush began his remarks to the media after their talks, he called Howard "my friend and our ally". He would never use such words about Latham - and that is probably the way Labor prefers it. Bush values his friends - Tony Blair is the closest, but Howard and defeated Spanish leader Jose Maria Aznar came next.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9747097%255E12250,00.html

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Mr Howard refused to rule out August 7 as a possible election date, but said the poll could be held early in the new year.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9811116%255E1702,00.html
"I know it's an interesting game to be played, but I am a long way from making a decision on that," he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
"Obviously it has to be some time in the next six months or so because that's when the three years is up.
"Although, it could theoretically be held in the early part of next year."