The Government is using an obscure part of the Constitution to drag the Senate back early on April 18 to consider the Australian Building and Construction Commission Bills, causing Sir Peter to terminate the last session of Parliament.
Advertisement
“I am here on day one of Malcolm Turnbull’s 103-day election campaign”, Mr Shorten said, referencing the prime minister’s threat of a July 2 double dissolution election. Turnbull said the go-slows and obstruction by Labor and the Greens on the key legislation must end. The double dissolution could result in a number of senators losing their seats to other candidates – something the government hopes will happen so it gets the numbers to pass the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) bill when the parliament resumes.
“If the Senate fails to pass these laws, I will…dissolve both houses of parliament and issue writs for an election”, he said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s cunning announcement on Monday could have been pulled from a House of Cards script despite his press conference statement that “the time for playing games is over ” .
Turnbull told ABC’s 730: “The Treasurer was aware that we were considering a whole range of options ” “.
The government trailed the opposition in opinion polls until Turnbull became prime minister, although his popularity has waned as observers have criticized his slow pace of reform.
“If they don’t take that opportunity, then that just adds to the argument that the Senate is deliberately refusing or failing to pass the bills, therefore making the ABCC bill another double dissolution trigger”.
He pointed to new Senate voting reforms passed on Friday, media law changes, his commitment to small business protections and an innovation agenda.
Q Why are Australians (probably) going to an early election?
Turnbull told reporters the budget will be handed down on May 3 regardless of the outcome.
The Howard-era building industry watchdog is loathed by the union movement which would create special laws for the building industry alone and give the Commissioner extraordinary powers to interrogate workers and union officials.
The reforms scrapped group voting tickets, a move brought in to deal with the rise of micro-parties and preference whisperers whose numerical maneuvering has had senators elected with as little as 0.5 per cent of the primary vote. In a double dissolution election–the first since 1987-the 150 lower house seats and all 76 Senate seats are thrown open, instead of a more usual vote for only half the Senate positions. “Since it was abolished by Labor the level of disputation has increased, lawlessness has spiked”, Turnbull said. “The issue in the election is who do you believe is best able to continue successfully to manage Australia’s economic transition?”
The opposition Labor Party holds a plurality in the Senate.
Advertisement
Blind Freddy can see that establishing an ABCC is not important enough to call a double dissolution over.
