BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard formally launched his campaign for the October 9 election, announcing an overhaul of technical education and a big new schools spending program.
Howard, under pressure to rejuvenate a campaign seen recently as lacklustre, also sought to stress his strong suit of economic management by alleging that the major threat to Australia's economic health was a Labor government.
He stood by his unpopular decision to take the country into the US-led war in Iraq, a major election issue following a pledge by opposition Labor leader Mark Latham to pull the troops out by Christmas if he wins office.
Howard, whose conservative coalition has been in office since 1996, said Sunday no decision during his term as prime minister was more difficult but "it was the right decision.
"If I had my time again, I would take the same decision," he said.
"The world is a better place, the Middle East is a better place without Saddam Hussein. Australian forces will remain in Iraq until they finish their job. We will not cut and run before Christmas or any other arbitrary date."
He also warned that the war on terror would be a long one but he would do whatever was necessary to protect Australians' way of life.
Although the election campaign has been under way for a month, the formal launching is traditionally held late, giving the leaders a major platform from which to outline their policies and vision.
Latham will launch Labor's campaign Wednesday, also in Brisbane, capital of the eastern state of Queensland in which a string of marginal seats could hold the key to victory.
Howard told 600 Liberal and National party supporters that, along with Labor's promise to deregulate the labour market, the skills shortage was now the biggest threat to the productivity underpinning the country's economic strength.
"Australia is facing a national skills shortage in traditional trades such as carpenters, welders, auto-electricians, motor mechanics, bricklayers, chefs and hairdressers," he told delegates packing Brisbane's City Hall.
A re-elected Howard government would revolutionise vocational education by setting up 24 technical colleges for some 7,200 students from coast to coast at a cost of almost 290 million dollars (210 million US) over three years.
The crisis was in part a product of Australia's "great economic success", he said, but also a legacy of bad decisions made 30 or 40 years ago to cut back technical education in favour of universities.
"I want an Australian nation in which a high quality technical education is as prized as a university degree," he said.
The colleges would be independent of the state education systems and run by principals and teachers recruited on the basis of performance-based pay.
In what was seen as a bid to match Labor's education program which has proved popular, Howard also promised an extra one billion dollars in funding for public schools and poorly resourced private schools.
The money will go not to the Labor state governments with responsibility for schools but directly to parents' councils and principals, Howard said.
He said his government's changes, such as reform of the waterfront, had driven down interest rates and inflation and helped push up real wages. "The coalition has been a better friend of the workers of Australia than Labor could ever dream," he said.