They seem to be living in some fantasy world. Myself, I'd argue that the states shouldn't be given any more power, not the other way round. In fact local government itself tends to behave in a right ratbag fashion most of the time. So in that respect, there is certainly a need for a change. God knows why.
More frequent elections give the people more opportunities to boot out the government.
If they really hated early elections so much, they'd boot out the government giving them. Six years ago from now was mid-1982, when nobody had heard of AIDS, Mikhail Gorbachev, the hole in the Ozone layer, the October Crash or the Hawke Government. As for eight years ago, add to that list the Franklin, Robin Gray, Ronald Reagan and the Space Shuttle. Let me run an amusing little proposition by you. The second question in the referenda doesn't eliminate the potential for gerrymander, but it does go a long way to fixing the numbers problem, and surely some correction is better than, as presently exists, none.