Malcolm Turnbull has announced at a press conference that he will recall Parliament for a joint sitting on April 18th, with the intention of forcing through the Government’s stalled legislation to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), a construction site watchdog active during the John Howard years.
If it isn’t passed this time, he’s going to call a double dissolution election on July 2, which means every seat in Parliament will be up for election. He’s also shifted the budget forward to May 3 to accomodate this new timeframe.
“If the Senate fails to pass these laws, I will advise the Governor-General to dissolve both Houses of Parliament and issue writs for an election,” he said.
The ABCC was essentially a union watchdog – said by the Government to be a necessary check and balance on the operation of the construction industry, but contended by Labor and the unions to be an unfair attack by a government ideologically opposed to unions altogether.
It’s a big upset – with the Greens-supported Senate voting reforms, the crossbenchers who have proved to be an obstruction for the Government’s agenda would likely be jettisoned.
But, with Turnbull’s slipping polling, there’s no way of telling at this point how it will go. Not to mention the fact that voters often tend to punish governments that pull them into early elections without much to show for it.
It’s gonna be a wild ride over the next couple of months, no matter what happens.
Source: Sky News.
Image: Sky News.
