Federal Election 2019 LIVE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison calls election for May 18

A public servant might call it "courageous".

Scott Morrison used his opening election pitch to argue that even though there are global headwinds, the Australian economy is strong and will get even stronger under the Coalition's agenda.

But just a week ago, the government's budget contained a string of downgrades to key economic indicators.

GDP, dwelling investment and most importantly wages are now expected to do worse than what Treasury was forecasting just back in December. Future tax revenues were written down by $15 billion on account of the slow down.

Read the full piece here.

Labor MP Emma Husar will not contest her seat of Lindsay as an independent after all.

Husar, who was embroiled in a scandal over bullying allegations, was replaced as Labor's candidate for this election. 

Angry at the way she was treated by the party, Husar had hinted that she would run as an independent. 

But today she has posted a thank you message to her constituents. 

"Thank you for having faith in me and trusting me to represent you. I'll miss serving you, I'll miss hearing your stories and helping in the tricky times," she said.

On a practical note, people have until April 18 to enrol to vote or update their details. 

That's one week. So get to it!

Head to aec.gov.au/enrol

Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has just held a press conference in Wagga Wagga. 

Asked about the Coalition's dire polling, McCormack goes for a fairly well-worn cliche. 

"There's only one opinion poll that matters and that will be held on May 18," he says, pointing to examples of polls being wrong in the past.

He says taxes are the main game in this election. 

Here's a look at the formal ceremony that marked the dissolution of the House of Representatives this morning.

This tweet from Scott Morrison sums up what the Coalition's campaign will be all about. The economy, lower taxes, national security and budget management.

A Labor government would attempt to force its tax agenda, including a plan to hit high-income earners with a new deficit repair levy, through Parliament before a potentially hostile new Senate is installed in July.

Putting itself on a possible collision course with the current Senate, shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has confirmed a series of start dates for Labor's ambitious tax agenda, with many proposals due to kick in from July 1 – just six weeks after the expected election on May 18.

The deficit repair levy on Australians earning more than $180,000 a year, a minimum 30 per cent tax rate on distributions from discretionary trusts, and an overhaul of franking credits are among the tax proposals needing parliamentary approval.

MPs now expect a special sitting of Parliament in the last week of June that would include senators who were elected at the 2016 poll but may have lost their position at the 2019 election. Those senators would still be entitled to vote on legislation until the new Senate convenes from July 1.

Read on here. 

Political reporter Judith Ireland has written a definitive explainer on the 2019 election. It goes through the major contests, the polls, the Senate, the issues and the technicalities.

You can find it here. 

The Greens are up and running. 

"It's on. This election is more important than ever. Time is running out to act on climate change. We need to make it the biggest issue of this election," says leader Richard Di Natale. 

We will hear from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten later this morning.

He was out for a jog this morning.