If crucial government legislation gets stuck in the Senate, Australians might be in for an unusual early election with a double dissolution.
The question of whether Anthony Albanese would order a double dissolution arose because three laws were mired in the upper house and were certain to be obstructed by the opposition and the Greens.
The prime minister responded, “Well, we’ll wait and see,” in response to suggestions that this course of action would not be beneficial for the government.
Here’s a strategy to sidestep a (double dissolution), if you ask me. Voting on bills is a matter for the Coalition and Greens.
“There’s nothing in the legislation on the Nature Positive Act that they say they’re opposed to, so why would you vote against it?” When both houses of parliament are dissolved and every seat is fought, it is called a double dissolution election.
There have been a total of seven calls in Australia’s history, with the most recent one being in 2016.
Several months before an election is mandated, the most recent one that can be conducted this term is January 25.
Three bills have already gone through the lower house but are now waiting to be considered by the Senate.
One of these is the Nature Positive Act, which would, among other things, create Environment Protection Australia as a regulator of the environment.
It looks doomed to fail in the upper chamber, along with the Help To Buy plan, a pre-election housing strategy that aims to assist eligible first-home buyers in entering the property market.
The opposition and Greens have both refused to vote for the legislation.
Neither bill has the support of the Coalition, and rumours have it that not even reducing the EPA to a compliance-only agency would be enough to win over the group’s support for the Nature Positive Act.
Another policy that the Greens oppose is the Help To Buy programme, which would allow the government to buy a portion of first-time homebuyers’ equity.
The minority party has indicated its willingness to compromise with the majority, but it claims it would have the opposite effect of making housing more cheap and instead raise costs.
But labour wants the bill to remain unchanged.
“The shared equity scheme through the Help to Buy legislation that’s before the Senate today, that’s been held up now for over 200 days, needs to be passed today,” said Albanese.
“This is a practical plan… it’s time that the Senate stopped with their nonsense of trying to connect other things with legislation and actually passed it in order to support homeownership.”
The Environmental Party, meantime, has advocated for a “climate trigger” to block large-scale projects that contribute to global warming in order to back the Nature Positive Act.
Albanese has already disqualified that.
“What we won’t do is undermine our own legislation with amendments when it stands on its merits and when… everyone in the parliament says they support the framework and the objective of that legislation,” added the president.
“It’s completely straightforward,” he stated.
