Scott Morrison shoots down suggestions of dual election

Scott Morrison has shot down reports that he is considering holding hold two federal elections next year.

Scott Morrison on the Gold Coast. Picture: AAP.

Scott Morrison has shot down suggestions of holding two federal elections next year.

Fairfax Media reports this morning that the idea of a half-Senate election early next year followed by a House of Representatives election a few months later had been floated to give the government more time to build support against Bill Shorten.

The Australian has been told by the Prime Minister’s office that they are still planning for one federal election.

“The government has no plans for a dual election. The election is due next year,” a spokesman for Mr Morrison said.

The last date for a simultaneous federal election is May 18 next year. Mr Morrison has said several times since he came to office that he wants the government to complete its full term.

Mr Morrison is now officially in minority government after independent Kerryn Phelps was officially declared the winner of last month’s Wentworth by-election.

She and other crossbench MPs have said they prefer for the government to complete its term.

Governments have tended to hold simultaneous elections since the 1980s. There were several senate and house-only elections in the 1960s and 1970s.

Senior federal government minister Simon Birmingham is confident Australians will go to the polls in May.

“I would fully expect that a normal election will be held, in the normal course of events, in the normal time, which is May next year,” Senator Birmingham told the ABC from Shanghai.

Asked on Monday whether his four-day bus tour of Queensland amounted to a quasi-campaign, Mr Morrison replied: “This is me doing what I do. I’m out, I’m listening, I’m hearing and I’m doing. That’s what I’m doing as a prime minister.”

Senator Birmingham said getting around Australia was exactly what voters would expect the prime minister to do.

“The members of the government are all getting on with their job. The job of the prime minister is in part is to get out and connect with the electorate and the community and that’s precisely what he is doing,” he said.

Manager of opposition business Tony Burke slammed the idea of dual elections and said governments have avoided the idea in recent decades because the public would not react well.

“It would have them clinging to power until the last minute for the election, inconvenience to the public, massive additional costs,” he told ABC radio this morning.

“Why is it good for the public to vote twice? To pay for two elections? It’s a ridiculous proposal.”

With AAP