page_title: Double dissolution
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Double dissolution / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia, visits Sir Peter Cosgrove, Governor-General of Australia, at Government House, Canberra, to request both houses of Parliament be dissolved and to enable a double dissolution election to be held on 2 July 2016.
context_page_description: A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives and the Senate. A double dissolution is the only circumstance in which the entire Senate can be dissolved.
  Similar to the United States Congress, but unlike the British Parliament, Australia's two parliamentary houses generally have almost equal legislative power. Governments, which are formed in the House of Representatives, can be frustrated by a Senate determined to reject their legislation.
  If the conditions are satisfied, the Prime Minister can advise the Governor-General to dissolve both houses of Parliament and call a full election. If, after the election, the legislation that triggered the double dissolution is still not passed by the two houses, then a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament can be called to vote on the legislation. If the legislation is passed by the joint sitting, then the legislation is deemed to have passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The 1974 joint sitting remains the only occurrence in federal Australian history.
context_section_description: There have been 7 double dissolutions: in 1914, 1951, 1974, 1975, 1983, 1987 and 2016. However, a joint sitting following a double dissolution pursuant to section 57 has only taken place once, in 1974.
  In 1914, the Joseph Cook Commonwealth Liberal Party sought to abolish preferential employment for trade union members in the public service, resulting in a double dissolution on 30 July 1914. In the election on 5 September 1914 the government was defeated by the opposition, Andrew Fisher's Australian Labor Party, and the bill was not pursued.
  In 1951, the Robert Menzies Liberal–Country Party coalition government sought to reverse the proposed nationalisation of the banks put in place by the Australian Labor Party government led by Ben Chifley. The repeal was opposed by the Labor Party in the Senate. Parliament was dissolved on 19 March 1951. In the election on 28 April 1951, the government was returned with a reduced majority in the lower house, but now with a majority in the Senate. The Commonwealth Bank Bill was presented to Parliament again on 26 June 1951 and passed both houses.
  In 1974, the Gough Whitlam Labor government was unable to pass a large number of bills through a hostile Senate. The government had announced a half-Senate election, but in the wake of the Gair affair, Whitlam decided to call a double dissolution on 11 April 1974, citing six bills as triggers.  The bills included representation of the territories and for the setting up of Medibank. At the election of 18 May 1974, the government was returned, but still without a majority in the Senate. Sir Paul Hasluck's term as Governor-General ended on 11 July and the new Governor-General Sir John Kerr took office. The trigger bills were reintroduced and again rejected by the Senate and on 30 July Kerr approved Whitlam's request for a joint sitting. The coalition parties applied to the High Court on 1 August to prevent the joint sitting. One of the grounds was that the dissolution writs did not set out which "proposed laws" were the subject of the dissolution and that only one bill could be dealt with at a joint sitting. The court delivered a unanimous decision on 5 August 1974 and ruled that the sitting was constitutionally valid, that the joint sitting may deal with any number of trigger bills, and that provided the circumstances set out in section 57 had been satisfied then the Governor-General need not specify which "proposed laws" were to be the subject of a future joint sitting. The joint sitting took place on 6–7 August 1974, and it passed the 6 trigger bills. Thirteen months later, four states challenged the validity of the Petroleum and Minerals Authority Act 1973 in the High Court on the grounds that correct constitutional procedure had not been followed: it had not been one of the 'proposed laws' in dispute when the double dissolution was called and could not therefore be voted on by the joint session. The states were Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. The High Court ruled that the Act was not eligible for the double dissolution process, as the Senate had not had sufficient time to "fail to pass" it.
  In 1975, the Whitlam government was again frustrated by a hostile Senate. The government had accumulated a total of 21 trigger bills, but did not call for a double dissolution. However, the Whitlam government was unable to obtain passage of appropriation bills through the hostile Senate, leading to the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. On 11 November 1975, in an attempt to break the deadlock, Whitlam intended to call a half-Senate election, but instead was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, who then appointed Malcolm Fraser, the Leader of the Liberal-Country coalition Opposition, caretaker Prime Minister. The Fraser minority government immediately passed the Supply bills through the Senate before losing a no-confidence motion in the House of Representatives.  Kerr then dissolved both houses of Parliament on the advice of the new Prime Minister citing the trigger bills, even though Fraser had opposed the bill
caption: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visits Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove on 8 May 2016 to request a double dissolution
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