This is the winter of a discontented electorate in Australia. Less than a week before Aug. 21's general election, the voters are deeply disgruntled and proving decidedly hard to please, while the main parties appear to be heading for a close finish.
On one hand there is the Labor Party and its leader Julia Gillard, the incumbent prime minister. Vying for her job is Tony Abbott, the leader of the Liberal Party, which, in coalition with the rural-based National Party, represents the conservative alternative to Gillard's progressive social agenda.
Ahead of making a prediction about the result, first — the issues.