MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard indicated on Sunday that he expected to be re-elected at the October 3 election when he said he was not sensing a mood for change in the electorate. And he said that even if his parliamentary majority was reduced, he would still have a mandate to carry out his proposed wide-ranging tax reforms. "I don`t sense that there is a mood to throw out the government," Howard told the Seven Television Network. "In the 24 years I`ve been in politics I`ve sensed that mood on
three occasions - 1975, 1983 and 1996." Those three years mark the
three changes of government that have occurred since Howard first entered parliament in 1974. Howard led the Liberal-National conservative coalition to a landslide victory in March 1996 after 13 years of Labor rule. A win, regardless of the margin, would be a mandate to implement the government`s proposed tax reforms, Howard said. The government wants to introduce a 10 percent goods and services tax (GST), offset by large cuts in personal income taxes. "As far as I`m concerned if the coalition is returned with a working majority that is win, and that is mandate to get on with the job." The Labor opposition is against the introduction of a GST, and the Democrats, another key minor party in the upper house Senate, have indicated while they support the principle of a GST, they want the government to make some changes - including not applying it to food. The government is unlikely to control the Senate after the October 3 election, where a preferential voting system makes it easier for minor parties to win seats, but Howard said the Senate should not obstruct a re-elected government. "If the Australian people vote for the coalition and return the coalition on the 3rd of October, we have a right to look every senator in the eye and say listen to the people, don`t act out your particular views," he said. National opinion polls show Labor slightly in front of the government, although analysts expect that the government will be returned with a reduced majority. Labor needs to win 27 seats in the 148 seat parliament to win power, and polling released on Saturday showed that it is not lifting its vote sufficiently in key marginal seats to ensure victory.
