Re: Four Year Terms
Originally Posted by
Julie1962
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Four years seems fair as said it gives time to make changes, but not so long that you can ruin a country. I'm not keen on our five year policy as they seem to run out of steam in the last year.
Five years is ridiculously long for a parliament to last in my opinion.
Personally I favour retaining the three year term, nothing concentrates a pollies mind more than the fear of execution.
The problem with changing the lower house term is that it will then be out of step with the half senate elections held every three years (again to change that would require a referendum). Shorten is proposing sorting that out afterwards by another referendum which I think is a bad move.
The Australian Constitution can only be changed by referendum. There have been 44 referendums held since 1901 and only eight of these have been successful. The most successful referendum in Australia’s history was in 1967 where 90.77% of the nation voted ‘Yes for Aborigines’.
To pass a referendum, the bill must ordinarily achieve a
double majority: a majority of those voting nationwide, as well as separate majorities in a majority of states (i.e., 4 out of 6 states).