Possible spring election for Australia

A buoyant federal coalition believes the Rudd government might be preparing to call an election before the spring session of parliament.

A joint meeting of Liberal and Nationals MPs and senators in Canberra on Tuesday - the first in nearly two months - was told the government had scheduled time in the last parliamentary sitting week of May for valedictory speeches in the lower house.

The notification, later denied by the government, was interpreted as a sign parliament would be dissolved before it resumed from its long winter break on August 24.

The government has until August 11 to ask the governor-general to dissolve both houses of parliament for a double-dissolution election on or before October 16.

It can hold an election for the lower house and half the Senate between August 7 and April 16, 2011.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told colleagues the coalition could win the election following a change in voter sentiment since they last met in March.

Three opinion polls in the past week indicated the coalition was now in a "competitive" electoral position.

Two of the polls - Nielsen and Essential - have the opposition and the government tied at 50:50 each while Newspoll had the coalition ahead of Labor for the first time since 2006.

When the coalition parties previously met in March the opposition trailed the government in the polls by up to six points.

Mr Abbott noted there had been a distinct change in political sentiment in the past several weeks.

"Politics is a test of character which Labour is failing," he said.

The opposition singled out Kevin Rudd during parliament's question time to quiz the prime minister about his decision to defer the government's emissions trading scheme, his handling of the botched home insulation program, a change of heart on asylum seekers and cost blowouts in the schools building program.

Later the opposition took Mr Rudd and the government to task over its plan to slug mining companies with a 40 per cent super profits tax from 2012.

The coalition sees a dramatic decline in Mr Rudd's standing with voters as Labor's weak link as an election season nears.

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop told the coalition meeting that it was the first time in her lifetime that she was witnessing the public begin giving up on a prime minister as a person of strong character.

- AAP