Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
Edited by Nelly Tawil
The Senate rejected a piece of government legislation for a second time on Monday, giving Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull the opportunity to call for a double dissolution election.
Australia’s constitution allows an early election to be called when the Senate prevents a piece of legislation that has been passed by the lower house, the House of Representatives, twice. Even though this was supposedly designed to resolve political deadlocks, throughout time governments have used it opportunistically when they see an advantage in an early election.
Mr. Turnbull confirmed his plan to call for an early election on July 2, he has also stated that he intended to ask the governor general to dissolve parliament after the budget on 3 May in a press conference, which took place on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister said his intentions for calling the double dissolution was about “giving people a say”.
He commented that if the ruling coalition wins the election “as I believe we will, we will return and the reforms to registered organisations and the reintroduction of the Australian Building ad Construction Commission (ABCC) will be made law”.
Bill Shorten, opposition Labor leader addressed the party’s caucus earlier in the day saying to the government that “beyond Turnbull’s popularity, they now have nothing”.
“They are going to have a civil war. It’s a choice about whether they have it in government or in opposition,” Mr. Shorten said.
Labor needs to win 21 seats to take power, a swing of 4.3%.
