AUSTRALIA is on a war footing: with the announcement that Western Australia will go to the polls on February 6, the battle for the hearts and minds of the nation's voters has begun in earnest.
In a desperately close election widely seen as a test of the Federal Labor Government's chances of survival, Western Australian Labor Premier Dr Carmen Lawrence, whose government could be thrown out of office by a swing of just one per cent, is fighting not only for her own political life, but for that of the Prime Minister, Paul Keating.
Her government holds just 28 of the 57 seats in the State Parliament's lower house and depends on the support of four independents to govern.
If Labor is trounced in the state - and a swing of just three per cent would see it lose 10 of those 28 seats - four of federal Labor's eight Western Australian seats will be in grave doubt. Given that the Federal Government needs to lose just five seats to fall from power, it's do-or-die in the West.
What's more, among those hanging on to their federal seats there by a slim thread is party heavyweight Kim Beazley, Federal Minister for Education and Employment and the man most often tipped as Paul Keating's heir apparent.
The timing of the Western Australian election has opened up an enormous guessing game about when the federal poll, which must take place by May, will be held. No one knows yet, including, it seems, Mr Keating, who faces some important constraints and obstacles in choosing the date. He must give 33 days notice.
To call an election on March 13 would mean doing so while the Western Australian campaign was still underway and the result unknown. If it hasn't been called by February 23, Parliament will resume.