Australia PM confirms early election plan

Canberra, April 19 (IANS) Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday confirmed of calling an early election on July 2.

On Monday, Australia's upper house, the Senate, rejected a piece of government legislation for a second time which provided Turnbull with a trigger for a so-called double dissolution election, BBC reported.

A double dissolution election is a mechanism in the Australian constitution that allows the government to call for an election if a piece of legislation is blocked twice in the upper house.

Turnbull said at a press conference that he intended to ask the governor general to dissolve parliament after the budget May 3.

He said said calling the double dissolution was about "giving the people their say".

"It means it's an occasion when the House and the Senate can't agree, persistently and so then everyone goes to the polls," he said.
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And when we win the election as I believe we will, we will return and the reforms to registered organisations and the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) will be made law."