In the process, Mr Turnbull said it would save dozens of jobs across Australia, from backbench Liberal MPs in marginal seats, all the way up to his own Prime Ministership.
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Turnbull was handed a trigger to call for July elections after the Australian Senate rejected a legislation to re-establish a construction industry watchdog.
The Federal Senate has voted down the Turnbull Government’s Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation meaning a double dissolution election trigger is now poised under the finger of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Theoretically, Mr Turnbull could immediately advise the Governor-General to dissolve both houses and issue the writs for an election, necessitating the cancellation of the budget.
Parliament’s upper house was recalled for a special sitting to vote on a bill created to crack down on what the government describes as “lawlessness and corruption” within the building industry.
The likely date for the election is widely touted to be July 2.
Fairfax Media reports the vote on the bill may be brought forward to Monday night, as early as 6.30pm, with the government not wanting to waste time on a doomed bill.
“The ABCC bill will be rejected, the RSRT will be dissolved and things will continue as per the script – that’s the feeling at the moment”, Strong says.
The 39-point margin that Mr Turnbull enjoyed over Mr Shorten as better prime minister at the start of the year has been halved to 19 points.
Changes to voting rules that will disadvantage so-called micro-party senators do not come into effect until 1 July.
The government needed the support of six crossbench senators to pass the legislation, but only four – Bob Day, Nick Xenophon, Dio Wang and David Leyonhjelm – voted in favour.
A double-dissolution election hasn’t been held since 1987.
Both the government and opposition have been in campaign mode since Mr Turnbull announced his audacious plan to prorogue parliament to debate the bills.
Senator Conroy said the decision to recall both houses of parliament was a “tawdry political stunt”.
One government senator said he expected a vote by 6.30pm on Monday evening but pointed out that more speakers could be added to the five listed to speak in the debate and cautioned that predicting when a vote will take place in the Senate was “like forecasting the weather”.
The Opposition’s Leader in the Senate Penny Wong said Labor is ready to begin its election campaign on Tuesday, but shied away from campaign slogans.
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Coalition MPs returning to Canberra are laughing off the potential for political damage to Mr Turnbull.
