Fixed four-year terms would improve business confidence and end the “phoney war” over election timing, a Liberal backbencher has said ahead of presenting a private member’s bill on the issue.
Liberal MP David Coleman told ABC AM he will release a draft bill on Tuesday for fixed four-year terms, adopting the system used for all states’ lower houses except Tasmania.
Fixed four-year terms have broad support across the political spectrum, including from Bill Shorten, although the change would require a referendum to change the constitution.
The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, has raised concerns the plan would involve lengthening Senate terms to eight years.
Coleman said members of the business community had advocated the idea to him, with many saying fixed four-year terms would achieve “greater stability of government”.
“If you look at comments by Nick Greiner, Tony Shepherd and other senior business leaders, there is a widespread view having a fixed four-year term would lead to a better system of governance in Australia and more getting done.”
Under the plan early elections could still occur by the government calling a double dissolution, a successful motion of no confidence, or through a provision that would allow the governor general to act in accordance with constitutional conventions in dissolving parliament.
Lower house MPs would have four-year terms and senators eight-year terms, the same model used to elect the New South Wales parliament.
Coleman noted that consumer confidence and business investment tend to be suppressed at election time, and added that four-year terms would also give potential candidates greater certainty on election timing.
“And don’t forget the phoney war, prior to elections when there’s endless speculation about when the election will be ... which frankly doesn’t add a lot of value to public policy and public debate,” he said.
The MP for Banks said he had discussed the idea with voters in his electorate and at times it was important to focus not on short-term political issues but structural issues in Australia’s democracy.
Coleman said there was “significant support” for the proposal in parliament.
According to Fairfax media, cabinet ministers Mathias Cormann and Peter Dutton have indicated they could back four-year terms, and new Coalition MPs Andrew Gee and Trent Zimmerman supported the proposal in their maiden speeches.
Shorten backed the change in 2015 on the basis it improved political stability and long-term policy thinking, and four-year terms are also supported in Labor’s platform.
On Radio National on Tuesday Wong criticised eight-year terms for senators “without facing the people”.
“I think we probably should face them more often than that.”
Wong said that longer-term government decisions “would benefit from a longer timeframe” but there were “a lot of issues that have to be resolved” before four-year terms could be adopted.
An alternative model would be to elect the House of Representatives and whole Senate every four years, as occurs in Victoria, although that would halve the quota for Senate election from 14.3% to 7.7% as occurs at a double dissolution.
Halved Senate quotas benefit minor parties and contributed to the election of four One Nation senators at the 2016 election.
Under Coleman’s plan, a referendum would be held on his plan at the time of the next election, due by 2019.
On ABC AM, Coleman accepted that changing the constitution is “a very difficult thing” and would require support from the government, opposition and the public.
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