Federal Election 2016: Malcolm Turnbull calls double dissolution poll for July 2

Okay, end of the day. What happened?

• the July 2 election campaign has begun;
• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made a pitch to voters asking them to return the government based on its economic and national security record;
• Mr Turnbull made no mention of issues he was once strongly associated with such as climate change and marriage equality;
• Labor leader Bill Shorten asked voters to trust his party and its message of fairness;
• Greens leader Richard Di Natale reminded people there was an alternative.

My thanks to Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen for their wonderful work and to you for reading and commenting - especially those of you who took the time to post nice comments about me working on Mother's Day.

You can follow me on Facebook throughout the campaign.

Alex, Andrew and I will be back in the morning for day one of the campaign. Until then, good night.

Don't forget you can keep up to date on all Fairfax Media's election stories, analysis and comment here.

Sometimes in election campaigns people start to question why politicians spend so much time in NSW. There's an obvious answer to that which is the size of its population. This year the focus will be on NSW like never before.

As James Robertson reports, more than half of the Coalition's most vulnerable seats - those with a margin of four per cent or less - are in NSW.

Richard Willingham looks at what could happen in Victoria, a state that never really warmed to former prime minister Tony Abbott.

You can follow chief political reporter James Massola's story about the calling of the election here.

Nick Xenophon wants you to know he's ready:

It doesn't take long.

The political ads have already begun.

The major parties offer "a false choice", Senator Di Natale says, when there is an alternative way.

"We don't have to make excuses for our policies, because they are policies that we believe in." 

Greens leader Richard Di Natale is in Newcastle where he is emphasising the three things the Greens are campaigning on - global warming, a more compassionate approach to asylum seekers and the growing gap between rich and poor.

"You cannot have a strong economy without a healthy environment," Senator Di Natale says.

Mr Shorten says Labor is happy to give businesses with $2 million or less turnover a tax cut but not companies with a turnover of $100 million or $1 billion.

This is based on "a theory which says that if you just give the very top a leg up, that that will trickle down to everyone else".

Mr Shorten says he is happy to debate Mr Turnbull at any point: "We are after the debate because I believe that Australians are hungry for an election which is more than just slogans. They want to know the detail, they want to know the positive plans and we have a lot of them."

Mr Shorten invokes the Beaconsfield spirit which was "a story of defiant Aussie spirit - people working together, looking after their mates and winning through".

"It reminds me, even today, that Australia succeeds when we work together with common endeavour and shared reward. It is an Australia where everyone gets the fair go. This is the Australia that I and my united Labor team are ready to
serve. A Labor Government who will put people first."

Mr Shorten says "trust" several times before running through the Coalition's budget measures that he disagrees with such as superannuation, tax cuts for high earners and company tax cuts.

"It is very important that Australians understand that my opponent's views and those of his party are a real risk to the living standards of all Australians."

Mr Shorten: "This election is much more than a choice between parties and personalities. This election is a choice about what sort of Australia that we want to live in....Will this country be a country that ensures that the fair go is for everyone? Or that the fair go is just limited to the fortunate few?"

Labor leader Bill Shorten begins his pitch to voters for election promising a "positive plan for the future" as opposed to "three more years of dysfunction, of dithering and of disappointment".

Education and health are the first issues Mr Shorten mentions followed by climate change, the economy and fairness. 

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is making a bit more of an existential pitch to voters: "We have only one place that all of us will live - it is in the future."

Mr Joyce says the election is "the occasion which indicates the start of a nation's journey to decide where it will go and how it will determine its future."

"We have proven ourselves but we are merely at the start."

Parliament will be officially dissolved tomorrow morning.

It is a short process taking only a quarter of an hour. First the proclamation from the Governor-General is signed in the marble foyer of Parliament House. Then it is read outside the entry to the building and, finally, placed on a ceremonial stand in the Member's Hall.

You have until Monday May 23 to enroll to vote or update your details.

And that's it from Mr Turnbull.

We won't see him again until tomorrow. 

Mr Turnbull takes only a handful of questions.

One is on debates and Mr Turnbull commits to a few.

One is on the issue of fairness and Labor's central attack point that the Coalition is not.

"What Labor left us with was a mountain of debt and a trajectory of structural deficits that imposed a larger and larger burden on our children and our grandchildren," Mr Turnbull says. "Every measure we have laid out, every single one,
will deliver stronger economic growth and more jobs.... And that is why we are asking the Australian people for the privilege of governing this country for three more years to secure our prosperity, to secure our future."

Mr Turnbull finishes: "These are times unprecedented in opportunity. There are uncertainties. There are challenges. But with a clear vision, a clear plan, and confidence in Australia and its people, our greatest days surely are ahead of us."

Mr Turnbull turns to immigration and mentions "the shocking and tragic experiment Labor conducted in government which saw 50,000 unauthorised arrivals by sea and over a thousand drowned at sea".

He says "Australians know that we will keep our borders secure".

The Coalition is "a government that controls its own borders" and manages an immigration system that contributes to "the most successful multicultural society in the world".