Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Australia will go to the polls on July 2 in a double dissolution election.

It is the first double dissolution poll in just on 30 years, launching an eight-week election campaign – one of the longest in Australian history.

After a Mother’s Day breakfast with his family in Sydney this morning, Mr Turnbull flew to Canberra to meet with the Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

Sir Peter gave his permission for Mr Turnbull to dissolve both houses of parliament, throwing open all 150 House of Representatives seats and 76 Senate places for election.

Mr Turnbull then addressed Australia with an 18-minute-long formal election pitch.

He said there was a very clear choice at the election - to stick with the coalition's plans for jobs and growth or go to Labor whose policies "will stop our nation's transition to the new economy dead in its tracks".

"But if we embrace this future with confidence and with optimism, with self-belief and a clear plan, then we will succeed as we have never succeeded before," he said.

He laid out his plan to return to government, citing innovation and science, Australian industry and high tech jobs, and getting young people into jobs as vital.

"These are exciting times. But we must embark on these times, embrace these opportunities, meet these challenges, with a plan and we have laid out a clear economic plan to enable us to succeed," he said.

He said his government had set up the stage for strong trade with China and Asia.

Speaking just after Mr Turnbull confirmed the date for the election, Mr Shorten asked what sort of Australia people wanted their children to grow up in and what they wanted for older Australians in retirement.

Labor framed the election as a choice between Mr Turnbull's millionaires and Mr Shorten's battlers.

"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?" Mr Shorten said.

He spoke from the Tasmanian town of Beaconsfield, where he first rose to political prominence ten years ago as a union leader when the Beaconsfield Mine collapsed.

Mr Turnbull's budget, released this week, planned to reward millionaires with a $17,000 tax cut and provide $50 billion in tax breaks to the country's largest companies, he said.

"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," he said.

He blamed the prime minister for the long 55-day election campaign but insisted Labor was ready with "positive" policies.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has declared the election will be fought on the issue of education , pointing out that Labor has pledged the most funding for schools.

Neither the former banker nor the former union leader has fought an election campaign before.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said his party has never been in better shape, and is hoping to pick up a swag of lower house seats.

The first post-budget Galaxy poll commissioned by The Sunday Telegraph indicated the two major parties were locked at 50-50 on a two-party-preferred basis.

Who do you think will be Australia's prime minister after the votes are counted? Malcolm Turnbull 47211 Bill Shorten 30328

It found 33 percent of voters believed they would be worse off from the budget, 59 percent believed they would be "about the same", and only seven percent thought they would be better off.

However, the poll had the coalition leading Labor on primary votes, 42 to 36 per cent.

Labor needs a national swing of 4.3 percent to pick up 21 seats to unseat the government after only one term.

The July 2 poll will be the first double dissolution election since 1987, and will be only the seventh since Federation.

Should Malcolm Turnbull be re-elected, he will likely make good on his threat to hold a joint sitting of parliament to pass controversial legislation to reinstate the building unions watchdog.

A joint sitting of parliament - which would involve all 150 MPs and 76 senators - has happened just once before.

In 1974, the re-elected Labor government of Gough Whitlam used its combined majority in the House of Representatives and Senate to overcome coalition intransigence in the Senate to give Australia Medicare.