Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has officially announced that a double dissolution election will be held on July 2.

While we brace ourselves for an 8 week election campaign, some of us are still wondering what a double dissolution election is. It’s not such a silly question, considering this is Australia’s first double dissolution election in nearly 30 years, and only the second since federation!

What is a double dissolution election?

Basically, a double dissolution election is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks between the two houses of Parliament that arise when the Government cannot get legislation through the Senate.

In Australia, proposed laws must be agreed to by both Houses of the Parliament. Section 57 of the Constitution

sets out the steps for resolving a disagreement involving a proposed law originating in the House. In summary:

1. The House of Representatives passes a bill and sends it to the Senate.
2. The Senate either fails to pass the bill or rejects it on two occasions.
3. The Prime Minister is then able to request the Governor- General to dissolve both houses of Parliament and for a double – dissolution election to be held.

The bills that were used as the “trigger” for the July 2 election were two Building and Construction Commission bills – which the Senate rejected for a second time in April this year.

After a double-dissolution election, if the same bill is again rejected by the Senate, the Government can ask the Governor-General to convene a joint sitting of the

House of Representatives and the Senate. The theory being, because the Government will usually have a majority in the lower house and there are twice as many lower house MPs as there are senators, a joint sitting is more likely to pass the legislation.

The Government has ostensibly pulled the double dissolution trigger for this purpose, hoping the July 2 election might return the Government a Senate majority and subsequently successful passage of their legislation. There may have also been political and strategic reasons to go to an election earlier rather than later.

In any event, an election means that Australian voters can now have their say.