page_title: 2016 Australian federal election
section_title: Double dissolution triggers
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Australian federal election / Election date / Double dissolution triggers
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: The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday 2 July to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign period. It was the first double dissolution election since the 1987 election and the first under a new voting system for the Senate that replaced group voting tickets with optional preferential voting.
  Unusually, the outcome could not be predicted the day after the election, with many close seats in doubt. After a week of vote counting, no party had won enough seats in the House of Representatives to form a majority government. Neither the Liberal/National Coalition's incumbent Turnbull Government nor the Australian Labor Party's Shorten Opposition were in a position to claim victory. During the uncertain week following the election, contradicting his earlier statements, Turnbull negotiated with the crossbench. He secured confidence and supply support from Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan in the event of a hung parliament and resulting minority government, as seen in 2010.
context_section_description: By 18 April 2016 there were four bills that met the requirements of Section 57 of the constitution for a double dissolution. 
  On 19 April the Prime Minister confirmed that, following the 2016 federal budget set for 3 May, he would advise the Governor-General to call a double dissolution election on Saturday 2 July. Any or all of these four bills could have been cited in his advice. On Sunday 8 May 2016, Turnbull visited Government House and formally advised Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove to dissolve both Houses of Parliament and issue the writs for a double dissolution election to be held on 2 July 2016. The advice was based on Parliament's inability to pass the following three bills:
  Building and Construction Industry (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013
  Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013
  Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014.
  The Governor-General accepted the advice and dissolved both houses of the Parliament the following day, 9 May 2016.
caption: Malcolm Turnbull visits Sir Peter Cosgrove on 8 May 2016 to request a double dissolution
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