The is expected to be called on Friday with polling day on 3 May, a senior government source has told SBS News.
It comes after months of speculation about the date of the poll, which had to be held before 17 May.
Labor go into the election with 77 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives. The Opposition has 53 and crossbench MPs 19.
will be looking to unseat Anthony Albanese and become the country's 32nd prime minister.
Dutton assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party and became leader of the Opposition after Scott Morrison's defeat at the 2022 poll.
What will happen at the federal election?
Some 150 seats will be up for election in the House of Representatives — down one from the last election — and 40 of the 76 Senate seats will be contested.
A number of MPs and senators will not be standing again, including Labor's Linda Burney, Bill Shorten and Stephen Jones and the Coalition's Karen Andrews, Linda Reynolds and Warren Entsch.
Kylea Tink, who was one of several so-called Teal candidates elected in 2022, will also not contest the election as her seat of North Sydney was
What happens now?
's party will attempt to draw attention away from
Earlier on Thursday, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet accidentally posted to social media platform X that the federal government was in caretaker mode, before quickly deleting the post.
Caretaker mode happens once the federal election is called and parliament is dissolved.
To formally call the election, Albanese needs to tell the representative of the King, the governor-general, that they wish to call an election.
Then, the governor-general terminates the sitting parliament and dissolves the House of Representatives.
After, the governor-general instructs the independent electoral body, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), to conduct an election, which includes setting dates for nominations, electoral rolls, and of course, election day.
When the election is called and the writs are signed, the election officially begins and politicians start to campaign.
The campaigning continues until three days before people hit the polls, when a media blackout begins.
During this period, it's against the law for candidates to politically advertise on television or radio, with the aim being that voters make up their minds by themselves.
