Throughout much of 2001, the Coalition had been trailing Labor in opinion polls, thanks to dissatisfaction with the government's economic reform programme and high petrol prices.

Labor also recorded positive swings in two by-elections, taking the Queensland seat of Ryan and coming close in Aston.

[citation needed] However, Labor supported a bailout, because the company's collapse was about to result in the biggest mass job loss in Australian history, whilst also arguing that the government was partially responsible for allowing Ansett to be taken over by Air New Zealand, a move which had caused Ansett's failure.

Labor attempted to reprise the effects of the birthday cake interview by deriding the application of GST to cooked and uncooked chickens, but failed to ignite public response to the limited scope of the rollbacks applying only to gas and electricity bills.

As a result, it includes the seats of Macarthur and Parramatta, which were held by Liberal members but had notional Labor margins.